Sir, – The National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026 expires this year. There is no announced successor. We are calling on Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to act now.
At last week’s Oireachtas Health Committee, the Department of Health confirmed that an independent review of the current strategy will commence in the coming weeks. It says work on a new strategy will only begin after that review concludes. This means substantive work will not start until next year at the earliest. This is too late.
A cancer strategy is not a document that can be written quickly. Northern Ireland began developing its 2021-2031 strategy more than two years before its public consultation opened. Scotland undertook a multi-year consultation process before publishing its 2023-2033 strategy. European guidance is equally clear: national cancer strategies should be living documents, continuously evaluated, renewed and not allowed to lapse.
Ireland cannot afford any gap. Cancer cases here are projected to grow by 47 per cent by 2040 – the second-highest projected growth-rate in the EU. The strategy’s 2023 implementation report found that only one of 23 objectives had been met.
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We are asking the Minister to immediately commission a formal evaluation of the strategy, announce a cancer strategy steering group with meaningful patient involvement, publish a clear development timeline with a target publication date no later than the end of 2027, and confirm there will be no gap in strategic direction or funding.
Cancer patients deserve to help shape the strategy that will govern their care. We would welcome the opportunity to meet the Minister and her officials to discuss this in person. – Yours, etc,
MIRIAM STAUNTON, chair, UCAN Ireland
ORLA DOLAN, chief executive, Breakthrough Cancer Research
ANGELA CLAYTON-LEA, chief executive, Cancer Trials Ireland
MICHAEL MCCARTHY, president, ISMO
LAURA BRADY, chief executive, IPPOSI
LIZ YEATES, chief executive, Marie Keating Foundation
For complete list of signatories, see ucanireland.ie
