Consultant radiation oncologist at Galway Clinic, Professor Frank Sullivan, said the Health Service Executive's arrangement deal with Ireland's private hospitals "has to stop now".
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sarah McInerney, Prof Sullivan said reports that the agreement may be coming to an end "is the best news I've heard as a physician since the 1st April, since this nightmare first started".
He said the deal is "delaying services to cancer patients".
"It is well documented that delays in biopsies, early access and treatment is likely to have consequences for patients, and this could mean loss of life. It is a very serious issue for all cancer patients be they public or private. This deal has been a disaster from start to finish, and the sooner it's over the better."
Prof Sullivan said the deal was designed to increase capacity in the hospital system, but instead "overnight the capacity collapsed".
"Hospitals emptied and activity in a non-Covid setting slowed down to a snail's pace. We have created zombie hospitals in the wake of this pandemic," he said.
There are three reasons why the deal has resulted in serious delays, according to Prof Sullivan.
"The first is the public health advice to stay at home for vulnerable people, including many cancer patients. So with that, we lost two months of active work. The second is, once we do come back we are going to have to change the playbook. We will be less efficient, in the cleaning involved and anesthesia will take longer. The third is we crippled one half of the health service by this arrangement at a time when we should have every doctor fully suited up and ready to go. Instead significant capacity is lying idle."
Prof Sullivan said that it would have been unethical for him to sign up to the deal, as he would be "abandoning 99% of his patients".
"I have 60 cancer patients on a waiting list. I have 3,000 active cancer patients on my room lists. These may be patients that have been treated by me in the past who may be having a relapse, a recurrence.
"We mind these patients outside the hospital with GPs. 99% of my work is outside the hospital so if I took the deal to take a salary for myself I would be abandoning 99% of my patients. It would have been unethical, it was a false choice."
Prof Sullivan warned of the "potential disaster" due to the delay of processing oncology slides.
"We have already come through CervicalCheck. I am mostly concerned about prostate cancers. I have 15 people waiting on image guidance results and these are high risk. They are difficult cancers to diagnose and I can't get into operating theatres to deal with them and if I send them back to a public hospital they will be waiting and face huge delays."
Earlier, Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly called for the State to reverse a decision not to process biopsies from cancer patients sent in by private consultants who have not signed the Type A public contract.
Mr Donnelly said that the State Claims Agency has written to the country's histopathologists, telling them not to accept biopsies from these consultants - who are thought to number around 300.
The agency will not indemnify the work for those consultants operating outside of the public contract.
Mr Donnelly said the "extraordinary" situation could see skin cancer patients and women with cervical cancers remaining undiagnosed and therefore untreated.
He called on the Taoiseach and Minister for Health to step in and "without prejudice" to the ongoing public contract discussions agree to process biopsies from cancer patients.
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He explained that some private consultants are still working voluntarily despite not agreeing to sign the public contract.
Some of these specialists may take biopsies in their rooms, including for women referred to them with high-grade cervical cell abnormalities.
Mr Donnelly said that potentially there could be women who are going to die of cervical cancer as the State has stepped in and said their biopsies are not to be tested.
It may take time for an agreement between the State and those consultants still seeking costs covered before signing the contract, Mr Donnelly added.
He said he has spoken to consultants who will sign the contract once they get agreement the State will cover their costs and insurance.
In a statement, the State Claims Agency said it indemnifies private hospitals and consultants on the basis of parameters set by the Health Service Executive.
"This e-mail [sent to histopathologists] sets out the position based on the HSE's guidance," it added.
"The SCA will issue a detailed document setting out the scope of indemnity cover to private hospital consultants on completion of discussions with the relevant medical defence organisations, the HSE and other parties."
