Charles Ward urges the government to restore the Donegal-Dublin midday cancer flight and to commit to a new national cancer strategy. He highlights severe delays in cancer treatment at Letterkenny University Hospital and the unequal access to care facing rural communities.
Restoring the Donegal cancer flight: Charles Ward calls for immediate action to reinstate the midday service between Donegal and Dublin. He argues the flight is a lifeline for cancer patients who otherwise face long travel times, overnight stays and missed treatments.
Evidence of delays: Ward cites recent research showing just 12% of cancer patients at Letterkenny University Hospital received treatment within the recommended 15 working days. He warns that longer waits reduce treatment options and have contributed to preventable illness and deaths.
Impact on rural patients: Ward outlines how GP shortages, reduced local services and geographic isolation create a postcode lottery in healthcare. He describes the financial and physical strain on patients forced to travel from Donegal, sometimes taking five-hour bus trips after chemotherapy.
Appeal to the minister and government: Ward has raised the issue with Minister O'Brien and asks the government to commit to a fair distribution of health resources and a new cancer strategy. He stresses that where someone lives should not determine their chance of survival or access to timely treatment.
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I want to thank Sean Féin for tabling this motion. I fully support the government at this and calls for the government to commit to a new cancer strategy. The postcode lottery and healthcare access across the country it's unacceptable and it's deeply unfair. People in rural communities such as Donegal are at a severe disadvantage when they fall ill and require emergency treatment or treatment at all of any type. My constituents are facing chronic shortages of GPs and very limited services in rural areas so many of the constituents are forced to travel long distances for basic treatments often delaying care and worsening health outcomes. So the longer the waiting times and the reduced local services have contributed to increased stress, financial strain and some cases preventable illness and deterioration. So a particular highlight comes from cancer care access in Donegal and as shown by the report in the journal Investigates last year just 12% of cancer patients in Letterkenny University Hospital received treatment within the recommended 15 working day time frame. So cancer patients in Letterkenny have to wait 50% longer than any other hospital in the HSE West or Northwest region and this impact is life-threatening. The research has shown that the delays reduce the treatment options that are available for cancer patients and some cases has caused unavoidable death and even distribution of resources services has clearly led to inequalities in health care outcomes so we have to address this. So where you live shouldn't determine how you get your treatment and the people of Donegal deserve the same health care outcomes as everybody else and the failure to invest and fairly distribute health care resources has left rural Ireland at a real severe disadvantage and the geographic isolation undermines the principle of the access across. So the most recent example being the plan changes to the cancer flights from Donegal to Dublin and the removal of the midday flight which has caused severe anxiety amongst the people and the cancer patients that are fighting for their lives. The passengers rely on this route to get necessary life-changing treatment and Minister the fact of the matter is that they're having to fight for this midday flight. It's the difference between getting treatment and not getting a hospital bed and not and a favorable outcome and not. So the purpose changes would cause people to miss critical treatment times and many of them would have to stay over in Dublin at night at financial costs themselves, severely ill, not able to afford hotel rooms and try and travel on in a bus and a bus up to Donegal from Dublin, you're five hours and coming out of chemo and traveling up on a bus. It's not desirable for anybody to do this and when they come in they're looking for a quality and the fact of the matter is the flight would give them that. The flight allows them to go get their treatment, come back down in the evening and be home instead of coming up trying to get a hotel room two or three four hundred euros that they don't have and then suffer and to get the flight first thing in the morning back up to Donegal. So I'm going to ask you to please do whatever you can to make sure that this is highlighted and that we can make sure that this flight is restored. I've spoken with Minister O'Brien of it and I've said it that we need to make sure that this flight is restored to Donegal because otherwise these patients are going to be suffering unnecessarily.
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