The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of cancer care and delays to cancer diagnosis and treatment could increase cancer mortality for the "next decade", according to a consultant medical oncologist.
Professor Seamus O'Reilly of Cork University Hospital said that even before the pandemic, cancer diagnoses were increasing at a rate of approximately 5% a year.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, he said there has been a prioritisation of care for symptomatic patients and while cancer screening programmes had been operating effective catch-up programmes, these have been "harpooned" by the recent cyber attack on the Health Service Executive's IT systems.
Prof O'Reilly said services at CUH have been operating at a substantially reduced level since the attack and the "wait and the wonder is excruciating for patients".
Before the pandemic there were 600,000 people on waiting lists for care in Ireland, he said, and it is estimated that there will be over a million people on waiting lists by the time normal services resume.
According to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, one in five hospital consultant posts are not filled as needed and an additional 73 consultant oncologists will be needed over the next seven years to meet demand on services.
Prof O'Reilly said a patient being treated for cancer will receive treatment from a number of different medical specialists, not just an oncologist and poor staffing can have a knock-on effect leading to a longer treatment and recovery period and worse outcomes overall.
