Fears that lack of cancer screenings could lead to undiagnosed cases
Aontú representative for the Laytown Bettystown electoral area, Peter Whelan says he has grave concerns for the escalation of late cancer diagnosis across Europe due to a lack of screening.
Peter Whelan quotes a report from the European Cancer Organisation just released where it is stated that 100 million cancer screenings did not go ahead across Europe during the covid 19 pandemic, and an estimated one million cancer cases could be undiagnosed in Europe.
Peter Whelan says “this could have been avoided in Ireland if our governments carried through on their campaign “be on call for Ireland,” he continued:
“This campaign initiated by the then Minister for Health Simon Harris was set up to alleviate our health service from being overwhelmed by the covid pandemic.
“I have figures which my party Aontú received from the HSE. These figures are astonishing. A total of 74,283 people signed up nationwide for the “be on call for Ireland “campaign.
According to figures from the HSE a total of 335 people were recruited from this database nationally. In Meath and Louth there were 4,224 people who signed up and a total of 4 people were recruited in the two counties.
“This campaign was underway at a time that our nursing homes were screaming for staffing support in their establishments on national radio and social media.
“We all know someone who has or had cancer. This terrible disease doesn’t always go away for good. For this reason, we are encouraged to get regular screenings to make sure our patients are still clear.
“We are regularly being told by medics and indeed government bodies to catch this terrible disease early to be able to deal with it before it spreads. My concerns now are that there are many people here in Ireland that may have cancer, and won’t be able to be diagnosed till the end of 2021.
“One can’t help but ask the question, were the government really serious about recruiting extra medics to keep our health services running alongside our covid pandemic.”