A backlog in screening programmes and long waiting lists will lead to delayed cancer diagnoses and increased mortality, according to a specialist in the disease.
The warning came from Professor Seamus O'Reilly, Consultant Medical Oncologist at Cork University Hospital and the Mercy University Hospital.
He told RTÉ's Drivetime: "The data is very strong on this. If you disrupt a screening service for six months, you increase mortality for the next decade and the data is particularly strong in patients with colorectal cancer.
"It isn't just a question of delayed diagnosis, these patients will have reduced survival duration because the tumours are more advanced [so] the nature of the treatments needed are more intensive.
"Instead of having a polyp removed and a scope repeated in ten years, it's now a cancer that may need a stoma bag, which is a life-transforming event for the patient."
Prof O'Reilly said that long waiting times have been an issue since before the pandemic.
"There's a lot of talk about catching up as a result of Covid, but really we needed to catch up before we started because there were 600,000 people on a waiting list in February of 2020, before the pandemic."
He pointed out: "Ronan Glynn, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, anticipates a million people will be on waiting lists at the end of the pandemic."
Prof O'Reilly warned that it is not just cancer patients who will be impacted by these delays.
"There are people with children with cleft palates who need time-dependent surgery, and children with scoliosis that need time-dependent surgery and the impact of these delays are just as significant for them."
He said there is "a manpower or people power crisis" among GPs who are extremely important in the care of these patients.
The pandemic has magnified healthcare inequalities, according to Prof O'Reilly. Patients with resources "will be able to go to the private sector to have issues dealt with".
Other patients will be forced to remain on public waiting lists with "poorer outcomes as a result", he warned.
