Rose Conway-Walsh: Cancer care in Mayo is a postcode lottery
Rose Conway-Walsh addressed urgent failings in cancer care affecting Mayo and Galway University Hospital, calling on the Minister to act on medical card access, diagnosis delays and bed shortages. She urged an all-island approach to cancer services and highlighted the human costs of car parking charges and inaccessible centres of excellence.
Immediate appeal to the Minister
Rose Conway-Walsh thanks colleagues for the motion and asks the Minister to return to the issue of medical cards for cancer patients, stressing the affordability barrier to care. She says the Department must act so that patients do not face financial obstacles to diagnosis and treatment.
Delays, beds and inequity in Mayo
Conway-Walsh details persistent delays in diagnosis in Mayo and criticises the postcode lottery that leaves some patients waiting longer for scans and treatment. She describes how bed shortages leave clinicians ready to treat but unable to admit patients for recovery, undermining clinical capacity at Galway and Mayo University Hospital.
Centres of excellence must be accessible
While acknowledging the value of centres of excellence, she argues they are ineffective if people cannot access them. Conway-Walsh proposes using the model of the all-island cancer research group to create joined-up treatment across the island and ensure equity of care.
Practical burdens on patients and families
She praises oncology staff for their dedication and draws attention to everyday barriers, including car parking difficulties at Galway University Hospital. She recounts the personal pain of trying to find a parking space while grieving, underscoring the additional strain placed on patients and families during cancer care.
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I want to thank my colleagues David and Ann for bringing forward this motion. Just on the last speaker, as Pádaili said, that is a real, real issue, Minister, in terms of medical cards for cancer patients and the affordability, the affordability of being able to access the care. So I would ask you to bring that back to the Minister to ensure that something is done about that. I do want to commend all of the staff who are working within oncology. They work really, really hard. The biggest problem that we have in Mayo, and Mayo cancer patients are served by Galway and Mayo University Hospital, is that time and time again, firstly, the delays in diagnosis. You know, if you can afford to get the scans and get everything else, then you get the treatment quicker. You know, what kind of a country are we when your life depends on how much money you have? That should not be the case. Absolutely should not be the case. But then you have the situation where you have the diagnosis and people are undergoing treatment and there's no bed there. When I say there's no bed, obviously I mean there's no bed that's fully staffed there for the clinicians who are there to give the treatment. So they're standing there like what a waste of money. They're standing there waiting for the patients, but there's no beds to put the patients in so that they can treat them and that they can recover. That absolutely has to be addressed. This isn't a problem from day or yesterday. It's a problem particularly since we have the centres of excellence and the centres of excellence are a good idea, but not if you cannot access the centres of excellence. It has to be made accessible for people. We cannot continue to operate on a postcode lottery that if you live in Mayo, you have less a chance of survival for cancer than anywhere else. We have to stop that. We have to bring equity into the system. I think the way we can do that is by having an all-island approach as well. There's wonderful work done with the all-island cancer research group and I think we should use that model to spread that across the island so that you have a joined up treatment of cancer care there. I would also say just in relation within the motion, we've talked about car parking charges, but trying to get a car parking space outside Galway University Hospital is absolutely horrendous. I remember the day that my mother died trying to drive around the hospital looking for a car parking space.
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