Top oncologist calls time on two-tier treatment for cancer

A cancer expert has demanded an end to the country’s two-tier health service which gives far better survival outcomes for cancer sufferers in Dublin compared with those living in the West of Ireland.

Professor Michael Kerin, Director of Saolta/University of Galway Cancer Network, said people in the West and North-West should not have to tolerate inequality in cancer outcomes.

In an interview with the Connacht Tribune, Prof Kerin urged Government to make good its commitment in the National Development Plan (NDP) for a Cancer Centre at University Hospital Galway (UHG).

“We have a two-tier health service in Ireland, where the East is so much better served than the West,” he said.

“Based on the national cancer registry review this year, looking at the deprivation index for the country and outcomes from cancer, the West and North West is the most deprived area and has the highest mortality from cancer.

“There’s at least a six per cent difference between the East and West in terms of the ten-year survival rate from common cancers such as lung and breast.

“If there was a drug that was responsible for improving this, people would be saying ‘why weren’t people in the West of Ireland getting access to that drug?’ so we need to improve what we are doing,” added Prof Kerin.

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