Debate contribution: Cancer Services and Outcomes

Debate contribution by Mr Alan Robinson on 18 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Alan Robinson

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

18 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Cancer Services and Outcomes

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5244951

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank everyone who spoke in the debate. Many spoke of their personal experience. As I have said many times, we always value that because it breathes life into what can, sometimes, be stale debates in the Chamber. I also thank the Health Minister for his input. We all recognise that he has an incredibly challenging and difficult role, and we should not lose sight of that. I certainly will not stand here and try to play politics with such an important topic. I do not think that anyone has done that this evening. Every day in this Province, 28 people get the news that none of us ever wants to hear: that they have cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of death here, even greater than heart disease, and we are in one hell of a battle against time. Our health system must work in the most efficient way, but the evidence is that we are simply not diagnosing or treating it quickly enough. In treating cancer, timing really matters. Indeed, we are the worst in the UK in that regard, and the gap is widening. That is certainly not a record that any of us want to crow about. As was mentioned, the latest figures, which were published in October for the quarter ending June 2025, show that, of those who a GP referred urgently with suspected cancer, only 32·5% began treatment within 62 days. That figure is far below the target of at least 95%. It is a scandal. As others also mentioned, only one third of patients were treated within the 62-day period. In Scotland, the figure stands at 69·9%, and, in England, it is 69·1%. It is worth repeating the fact that two thirds of those urgent patients were waiting beyond what is judged to be acceptable. It is wholly unacceptable that all trusts missed that target. Indeed, they were the third-worst figures since 2008. Those patients include people with blood cancer and breast cancer. Worse still, almost nine out of 10 people with lower gastrointestinal (GI) cancers waited more than 62 days to start treatment. It is also worth highlighting that the Department does not publish the numbers of people who waited beyond that 62-day period or the length of time that they had to wait to be treated. The Minister needs to publish regular- and long-wait data. Turning to survival and treatment outcomes, figures for the period 2012 to 2016 show that the one-year net survival rate after a cancer diagnosis stood at approximately 73% and that the five-year net survival rate was 57%. It would be interesting to access the most recent figures. For some cancers, the position was more bleak. For instance, pancreatic cancer in Northern Ireland had a one-year survival rate of just 25·9% and a five-year survival rate of 6·2%. A major international benchmarking study found that cancer patients in Northern Ireland received less chemotherapy over a five-year period than cancer patients in comparable countries. In Norway, the percentage was 39·1%; in Canada, it was 38·5%; and in Australia, it was 42·1%. In Northern Ireland, the wait to start chemotherapy was, on average, 57 days versus 48 days in England and 39 days in Norway. That study highlights unfortunate missed opportunities for patients in the UK to receive life-prolonging treatment. Furthermore, the proportion of patients being diagnosed at the latest stage is troubling. Between 2018 and 2022, the rate of diagnosis of pancreatic cancer at stage 4 was 51·2% in Northern Ireland. As has been said, international research shows that a delay of four weeks in starting cancer treatment can increase the risk of death by between 6% and 8%. All that paints a really poor picture of patients waiting far too long, and it proves that outcomes are unacceptable when compared with all other nations. Given how far we are from the target of 95% of urgent referrals beginning treatment within 62 days, the Minister and his Department must focus on clearing those backlogs, and the patients who are most at risk must be given priority. He should set incremental but firm milestones — for example, reaching 50%, then 65% and then 80% — and report publicly each quarter. I am not one who favours a plan on top of another plan; we have seen much of that in the past. However, we do need a cancer waiting stabilisation recovery plan that learns from what other regions of the UK have done to turn things around. Regardless of whether you call it a waiting list turnaround programme or something else, we must do better. Everyone in the Chamber is united in wanting all cancer patients to have the highest quality of treatment and outcomes. Every week that a patient waits is a week in which their prognosis worsens and translates into real consequences. Sometimes, those consequences are deadly. Northern Ireland's performance is not just lacking: in some respects, it is among the worst in comparable jurisdictions, which is simply unacceptable for our people. Again, this is not in any way an attack on you, Minister. All of us in this House want to support you, but we cannot shy away from holding you and the Department to account when the statistics before us remain so stubbornly poor. As I said, studies show that even a four-week delay in starting cancer treatment can increase the risk of death by between 6% and 8%. Four weeks may seem a short time in policy discussions, but, to a patient who is waiting for chemotherapy, surgery or radiotherapy, it is an eternity. It can be the difference between a cure and, sadly, palliative care.

949 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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