{"id":156675,"date":"2025-11-24T07:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T07:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/156675\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T07:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T07:40:07","slug":"calls-to-resolve-unacceptable-delay-as-46000-patients-wait-more-than-18-months-for-scans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/156675\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls to resolve ‘unacceptable’ delay as\u00a046,000 patients wait more than 18 months for scans"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 46,000 people have waited longer than 18 months for vital scans, which could include diagnoses of cancer or heart disease, unpublished data from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) shows.<\/p>\n

Calls have been made for these \u201cunacceptable\u201d delays to be addressed with investment in machinery and staffing.<\/p>\n

One cancer survivor said: \u201cEvery extra day matters. It\u2019s hard to articulate how anxious waiting can make you, it\u2019s unbearable. You\u2019re thinking this is growing all the time, it\u2019s inside me and it\u2019s growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, some 299,736 people were waiting for CT, MRIs, or ultrasounds, data gathered for an ongoing pilot project on waiting lists from April to June 2025 shows.<\/p>\n

The longest waiters, some 46,551, make up the smallest group, while the largest group of 242,010 people were waiting up to 12 months.<\/p>\n

The report states it is not for active management of lists and is an \u201coverview\u201d of numbers.<\/p>\n

These early findings indicate new HSE regions face varying pressures in the run-up to the first budget allocations by region.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe documents were released to Sinn F\u00e9in health spokesman, Waterford TD David Cullinane. File picture: Leah Farrell\/RollingNews<\/p>\n

In Cork and Kerry, some 1,474 patients waited longer than 18 months. This stands at 9,980 for HSE Dublin and Southeast, including south Tipperary and Waterford.<\/p>\n

For HSE Midwest, this group is 7,762 people. The other regions also have large numbers.<\/p>\n

Miriam Staunton said she is relieved to be cancer-free after treatment for Stage IV melanoma.<\/p>\n

An advocate with United Cancer Advocates Network Ireland, she said that, as a patient:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n You are waiting for scans, waiting for results, the anxiety is not to be underestimated.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would always say to people \u2018chase appointments, chase results\u2019 because the system is working at capacity and we don\u2019t have electronic records, so stuff can get lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irish Cancer Society director of advocacy and communications Steve Dempsey said the unmet need for scans is too high.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIn the first six months of 2025, seven in 10 people were waiting more than three months for an MRI, and six in 10 were waiting more than three months for a CT scan. This is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Four-week treatment delay can increase mortality by 10%’\u00a0<\/p>\n

He pointed to UK research showing every four-week delay in starting cancer treatment can increase mortality by 10%.<\/p>\n

The data shows 1,530 children waiting longer than 18 months. However, Amy Nolan, Irish Cancer Society director of clinical affairs, said it is not aware of delays for childhood cancer scans.<\/p>\n

Separate HSE data on diagnostic machinery shows some operating beyond \u2018end of life\u2019 when suppliers stop their support.<\/p>\n

Hospitals reported six machines with a 2020 date and a group of 20 machines marked 2018 to 2020 among others.<\/p>\n

Some 12 hospitals reported staff shortages, including one outsourcing CT scan reporting as a result. One can only run its CT scanners together one day a week.<\/p>\n

Mr Dempsey called for investment in equipment and staffing, adding:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Ireland has fewer machines per one million people than the EU average for MRI and CT.\n <\/p>\n

Both documents were released to Sinn F\u00e9in health spokesman David Cullinane.<\/p>\n

\"IrishIrish Cancer Society director of clinical affairs Amy Nolan. File picture: Andres Poveda<\/p>\n

He described waiting lists as \u201cshocking\u201d, saying:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows just how badly this Government is failing to deliver timely access to basic healthcare,\u201d Mr Cullinane said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBehind every statistic is a person, someone who is worried about their health, waiting in pain or uncertainty for answers that should have come months ago.<\/p>\n

\n These are extraordinary numbers, and they show how widespread this crisis has become.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

He called for a national plan, urging \u201cmore scanners, longer opening hours, and more radiographers and radiologists to run them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology is no good if we don\u2019t have the people to deliver the service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health said diagnostics are a priority within the national development plan. The health allocation for 2026 to 2030 is \u20ac9.25bn.<\/p>\n

A spokesman said this NTPF data continues to be tested and validated. The fund has worked on waiting lists since last year to offer \u201csafe, timely, fair and equitable\u201d access to scans.<\/p>\n

The HSE has \u201cambitious targets for increasing activity and reducing waiting times\u201d. Budget details will be in its service plan for 2026.<\/p>\n

Access to scans will be prioritised, a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

The equipment replacement programme offers rolling multi-year capital funding to replace \u201cageing, unreliable medical equipment\u201d especially hi-tech equipment. Increased funding saw spending reach \u20ac268m between 2022 and last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 46,000 people have waited longer than 18 months for vital scans, which could include diagnoses of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[258,4888,103,397,396,2120,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-156675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-family","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-hse","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}