Debate contribution: Cancer Services and Outcomes
Debate contribution by Mr Stewart Dickson on .
- MLA
- Mr Stewart Dickson
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 18 November 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Cancer Services and Outcomes
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5244916
Read the official Assembly record
Text
As chair of the all-party group on cancer, and as a cancer survivor, I welcome the debate this evening. For all our political differences in this place, cancer is not a party political issue; it is about people. People are waiting, worried and often afraid to ask how long they can afford to wait. Today, I ask that the political will of the Chamber be brought to bear on the Minister and the Department. Whatever it takes — north, south, east or west — cancer simply cannot wait. I have brought people who are affected by cancer to the Assembly, including Isla Gear from Scotland, who presented her pancreatic cancer petition in memory of her late brother, and a constituent of mine whose niece has terminal brain cancer. Time is everything. Evidence shows that, for many cancers, a delay of just four weeks in starting treatment increases the risk of death by 6% to 8%. Behind every percentage point in those statistics are lives shortened, families changed and opportunities for cure lost. Shamefully, Northern Ireland has one of the worst cancer waiting times in the United Kingdom. We are not diagnosing quickly enough, and we are not treating soon enough. Cancer Research UK estimates that, between July 2024 and June 2025, for red-flag referrals alone, which account for one third of cancer cases, 35,000 people in Northern Ireland did not start their treatment on time. With regards to targets, we do not really know the true scale of the backlog, or, more importantly, the human cost. That is simply unacceptable. Cancer also remains the largest killer by disease of children and young people in Northern Ireland. Our one-year survival rates are also the lowest in the United Kingdom for pancreatic and ovarian cancers. The proportion of people diagnosed at an early stage has not improved for over 10 years. For too many families, the tragic fact is that the first certainty that they get is that it is already too late. Our clinicians work tirelessly. I can certainly attest to that, having seen the nurses, doctors and oncologists who looked after me. However, they are operating in a system that was built for a population that no longer exists. There are many bottlenecks because of imaging and endoscopy capacity and overstretched pathology services. There are serious gaps in our workforce, including in oncology, radiology and specialist nursing. Many of our imaging systems are, quite simply, clapped out. Sixteen per cent of scanners are already obsolete, and that number is rising. Some of the machines that are diagnosing cancer today in Northern Ireland have been in service since before some of our doctors left secondary school. The Department allocates only £3 million a year for equipment, even though there is a real need for replacement, the cost of which is somewhere near £25 million. That is not just an inefficiency; it is unsafe and unfair. We also hear about the postponed Northern Ireland imaging academy being a permanent solution, but there is no confirmation, no funding and no timetable. Without investment in scanners, training and workforce development, we cannot fix waiting times. All of that must be treated as a core part of our cancer strategy rather than as an afterthought. There has been progress. The opening of rapid diagnostic centres at Whiteabbey Hospital and South Tyrone Hospital are welcome. The new regional breast cancer service, which pools resources across trusts, shows how joined-up care can work, but pilots and patches to the system cannot repair it; it is in firefighting rather than delivery mode. Cancer Research UK is clear that improvement is possible. With a focus on clinical safety, in addition to a whole-system approach that stabilises services and strategic investment in capacity, the situation can be turned around. A coordinated path with clear governance and realistic future funding is essential. Ultimately, the Health Minister must commit to substantial improvement to overall cancer waiting times and put in place a road map to achieve that. Cancer cannot wait. The situation is fixable if the Minister has the will to fix it and the Assembly and Executive are behind him in delivering that. It is time for us all to stand up to cancer.
703 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not qualifying”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (qualifying needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not qualifying).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.98).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.99).
- Subject area: Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-qualifying threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.98 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-qualifying threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.99 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.01 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.52 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.39 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.06 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.02 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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