В Ирландии запускают национальную сеть онкоцентров для обеспечения равного доступа к лечению

Clinical director of the St Vincent’s UCD Cancer Centre says countrywide network can bring care closer to the patient while building on success of designated cancer centres The establishment of a national cancer network in Ireland ‘will overcome the postcode lottery of cancer care,’ a leading oncologist has said. Clinical director of the St Vincent’s UCD Cancer Centre, Dr David Fennelly, said a new nationwide network, built around the country’s existing designated cancer centres, would ensure ‘equitable, high-quality, and sustainably-funded cancer care for every patient in the State, regardless of where they live’. The HSE Dublin and South East region, in which St Vincent’s is located, has been identified as a pilot site for the rollout of a network, which would extend cancer centre-level care out to local hospitals, co-ordinated centrally by the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP). The outcomes these networks provide for patients would then be benchmarked against EU standards as part of the European Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres (EUnetCCC). The EUnetCCC aim to provide access for more than 90 per cent of cancer patients throughout Europe to a comprehensive cancer centre by 2030. “This networked model of cancer care is already well-established among our European partners,” Dr Fennelly told the Joint Oireachtas Health Committee. “With a population of approximately five million, Ireland is well suited to a small number of Designated Cancer Centres, each serving as a hub for a defined catchment population, rather than a fragmented or purely single site approach. “This would place Ireland at the forefront of cancer care internationally, matching the ambition already shown by comparable European health systems.” Dr Fennelly explained that, under a network structure, a patient’s treatment pathway would be coordinated centrally in the cancer ‘hub’ and then delivered by medical professionals located throughout the network. This way, patients should be able to receive more care closer to where they live. “That builds on the structures that are already in place in the eight designated cancer centres, so it is complementary to that.” He said that engagement is already underway with the Department of Health and EUnetCCC around a pilot project in HSE Dublin and South East, which will be reviewed after three years. Dr Fennelly was speaking at a meeting focused on the ten-year National Cancer Strategy, which concludes this year. He said that increasing participation in clinical trials is crucial to raising the standard of cancer care here: “We lag behind the rest of Europe in terms of patient access to clinical trials, and that is one thing that we really need to work on in the next strategy.” He also expressed concern that the current model of health funding ‘does not adequately support’ cancer care. “The withdrawal of a dedicated NCCP budget has significantly hampered the continued development of cancer services nationally,” he said. Irish Cancer Society CEO Nikki Gallagher warned the committee that without dedicated ring-fenced cancer funding, Ireland will be unable to deal with rising cancer diagnoses in the next 20 years. “Ultimately, this will mean that we risk not gaining better outcomes for people affected by cancer,” she said. “These are quite literally life-and-death decisions.” She pointed to recent figures which showed thousands of people not receiving urgent cancer treatment on time last year. This includes 11,600 women not accessing an urgent symptomatic breast disease clinic within recommended timeframes, 6,600 left waiting for an urgent colonoscopy, and 2,800 people not starting chemotherapy or radiotherapy within target timeframes. Thomas Hofmacher, research director at the Swedish Institute for Health Economics, told the committee that Ireland has made progress in improving cancer care, but the next cancer strategy ‘should be more than a continuation of the current one’. “It should be a measurable, investment-backed, digitally-enabled implementation strategy, aligned with European ambitions and informed by lessons from other European countries,” he said.