Madam, - The new National Cancer Strategy provides us with a great blueprint for a cancer service that will bring down mortality rates and alleviate suffering from this terrible and all too common disease. The document covers many issues identified by Europa Donna Ireland, the Irish Breast Cancer Campaign, as being central to to the treatment of cancer patients and for which we have campaigned over a number of years.
These include the extension of breast screening to women up to the age of 69; access to the highest standards of care for all; treatment by multidisciplinary teams; the development of a national cancer genetics policy; better palliative care services; the integration of psycho-oncology services into the patient experience; access to information; and access to clinical trials.
One in three people in Ireland will develop an invasive cancer in their lifetime and we have recently seen the frightening projections for further growth in the incidence of cancer. No matter how good a strategy we now have, it will be of little use to cancer patients and their families without adequate funding for implementation.
Appropriate funding needs to be allocated now so that the necessary framework can be put in place and so that we have a clear timetable for implementation. We cannot continue to subject cancer patients to fragmented services and regional disparities in treatment and care. If funding can be allocated for the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (as of course it should be), then it can be allocated for the National Cancer Strategy. - Yours, etc,
DEIRDRE O'CONNELL, Chair, Europa Donna Ireland, The Irish Breast Cancer Campaign Dublin 8.