It’s emerged that a number of hospitals are routinely missing their targets for treating cancer patients within 15 days of diagnosis.
As a result, hundreds of people were last year forced to wait for chemotherapy, according to figures published in the Irish Independent.
The worst offender was The Mater Hospital in Dublin where one-in-three cancer patients got delayed treatment last year.
The National Cancer Control Programme has set a target that 95% of cancer patients should receive IV treatment within 15 days of diagnosis, but at Galway University Hospital, 22% of patients did not receive IV treatment within the 15-day target last year, and this figure was 25% at Portiuncla Hospital in Ballinasloe.
Mayo and Sligo University Hospitals fared better, with 99% of patients at both hospitals receiving chemotherapy treatment within 15 days of diagnosis.
