Debate contribution: Cancer Services and Outcomes

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 18 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

18 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Cancer Services and Outcomes

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5244918

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I acknowledge the significance of Members' speeches. I pay tribute to Sinéad, and I wish her friend or family member the best. I am glad to hear that Órlaithí's mother has received good news. Although I do not know him, it would also be remiss of me not to mention Ernie Irvine from Fermanagh, who was on the front page of 'The Irish News' today. He was forced to wait for 50 hours in Altnagelvin Hospital's ED at the weekend, despite his having cancer. That is completely unacceptable. Our best wishes go to him also. Our cancer waiting times, as Members have said, are by far the worst across these islands, and they are getting worse by the day. Prevention, early diagnosis and fast treatment are life-saving measures and are literally a matter of life and death, as Members have indicated. The longer that people wait for a diagnosis and for treatment, the more that opportunities for treatment are missed. The 'British Medical Journal' estimates that a four-week delay results in a 6% to 8% increased risk of death. Not to be dramatic or flippant about it, but that can be a death sentence for so many people. Cancer Research tells us that, in the past year, 3,500 people with a red-flag referral did not get their treatment on time. Members have already said that, but it is worth repeating that shocking statistic. Those are people with the most serious and urgent cases of suspected cancer, and the 62-day target from referral to first treatment has never been met in full since it was introduced in 2008. Right now, less than a third of patients in the North are being treated within 62 days. In England and Scotland, around 70% are being treated, so we are way behind. Missing the 62-day target is just the tip of the iceberg, as that includes only GP red-flag referrals. It does not include screening, non-urgent referrals or emergency department presentations, so we do not have access to some very basic but important information, including on how long people are waiting from diagnosis to treatment. I was made aware of the case of a man who was red-flagged for prostate cancer in January. He started his treatment only this month, in November, and it seems that he will now need treatment for a year. How different would his outcome be had he been treated in time? At the bare minimum, the Department should regularly publish more comprehensive data on waiting times — I do not know anyone who could disagree with that — as well as the disaggregated data on children, young people and women within broader cancer statistics. That is crucial in order to understand the reasons behind delays and what is being done to fix them. Children and young people also need to be mentioned in the debate, given that 125 children and young people, all under the age of 25, are diagnosed with cancer each year in the North. Young Lives Vs Cancer reports that most young people do not tend to wait a long time from diagnosis to treatment, but there are significant delays in their even getting a diagnosis after first presenting to health services. Too many children and young people, and, indeed, people of all ages, face an uphill battle for their health concerns to be treated seriously enough for them to get a referral or a diagnosis. Too many cancers are diagnosed in an emergency setting, and only 42% of people diagnosed with cancer in emergency departments survive beyond a year. They should obviously not be diagnosed there. We need quicker access to high-quality cancer services and a better experience of diagnosis. We need wrap-around support for people who are facing a cancer diagnosis, including counselling and access to mental health services, as well as financial support. The cost of practical but essential things such as travel and accommodation should never be a barrier to getting cancer treatment, but, unfortunately, it is. Children and young people travel around twice as far and spend twice as much as older adults with cancer, with there being just one principal treatment centre in the North, which is in Belfast. Only 8% of families receive support with their travel costs. That is simply not good enough and puts additional strain on low-income families, who are already dealing with a devastating cancer diagnosis. Cancer affects us all, rich or poor, but the burden is not distributed evenly. Shockingly, death rates from cancer are 60% higher for people living in the most deprived areas. That is certainly the case in the UK, and it is probably the case across these islands. There are 78 extra cancer deaths as a result of deprivation each and every day. Nobody should face a greater risk of death from cancer simply because of where they live. We therefore need the Department to work with local communities to prevent the causes of cancer and to spot signs at the earliest possible stages. Interventions such as smoking-cessation clinics and targeted lung-screening programmes will help, but, ultimately, we need to deal with health inequalities and the gross wealth inequality to which the Minister has alluded. Action needs to be taken to eliminate health inequalities and treat cancer.

877 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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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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