MEMBERS OF the public should have the same access to cancer treatment as senior politicians, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said.
He said that the reason cases were designated as urgent for a colonoscopy was because there was an 18-month queue and consultants must do something with people they had concluded were ill.
"If the Taoiseach or I went to the doctor and he recommended we get a colonoscopy, we would not wait 18 months to get it done."
"I do not see why the Taoiseach and his Government should expect people who do not have the money to pay for the service to wait for it either." Just because somebody was not sufficiently well-off to be able to go to a private facility and pay for a test, or to have the level of insurance that would provide that test quickly, did not mean they should be put at greater risk of dying, which what was happening, he said.
Mr Ahern said that some 100,000 people worked in the medical and health services and they conducted the clinical assessment on each patient and referred accordingly.
Mr Ahern said that cases classified as urgent got the next available slot, which was between two and three days for the majority of those, and, at the bad end, the wait was five weeks.
He said that the waiting time for non-urgent cases ranged from three to 18 months. "I agree that seems to be a wide span, but it is a decision medical clinicians make," he said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that reports indicated delays of four months in Cork, nine months in Kerry, eight months in Wexford, 18 months in Portlaoise and up to 12 months in Tralee and Galway.
"Consultants have said to me face to face in different hospitals that patients die because they are not seen as quickly as they should be seen," he added.
Mr Ahern said that the Health Service Executive had advised the Government that colonoscopy scheduling was based on clinical need and that each patient was assessed individually by his general practitioner and referred accordingly.
The head of the cancer control programme, Prof Tom Keane, had said there were many unnecessary follow-up visits for certain patients after treatment and that resources could be far better used for initial investigations for new patients.
Prof Keane, he added, planned to eliminate such follow-up visits, which he believed would dramatically improve the service.
