{"id":432150,"date":"2026-05-04T18:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/432150\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T18:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:24:08","slug":"fed-up-of-postcode-lotteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/432150\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fed up of postcode lotteries\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland\u2019s cancer patients are being left behind in a \u2018postcode lottery\u2019 as a revolutionary new injectable cancer<\/a> treatment is rolled out across England and Wales, a leading researcher has warned.<\/p>\n

Professor Mark Lawler, from Queen\u2019s University Belfast<\/a>, said he was \u201cfed up talking about postcode lotteries\u201d as the north repeatedly gets left behind other parts of the UK in health advancements.<\/p>\n

His comments come after the injectable form of immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab began being rolled out on the NHS in England and Wales from Monday, but not in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

The new formulation of the drug cuts treatment time by up to 90 per cent, replacing lengthy intravenous infusions with a one-minute injection every three weeks or a two-minute dose every six weeks. <\/p>\n

\"NI<\/a>\"DUP<\/a><\/p>\n

The treatment is used to fight 14 types of cancer, including breast, cervical, lung, and head and neck.<\/p>\n

Professor Lawler, who has more than 30 years\u2019 experience in cancer research, said the benefits for patients were transformative.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally a patient would have to sit in a chair for about one and a half to two hours getting an infusion into their vein,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the injectable form, they can be in and out in minutes. It reduces anxiety because it\u2019s done very quickly, and rather than spending one and a half hours per patient, you can do it in a couple of minutes, so you can potentially see more patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Lawler said the failure to extend the rollout to Northern Ireland was inexplicable given the potential benefits to the health system as well as patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even a new drug that\u2019s never been used in Northern Ireland patients \u2014 it\u2019s essentially the same drug, just in a formulation that can now be given as an injection, and that has a huge impact,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m guessing the reason is financial as it\u2019s not a capacity issue – it would actually improve capacity and potentially reduce waiting lists, which is obviously one of the things we\u2019re trying to do in Northern Ireland\u2019s health service.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re in Bangor in Wales, you can get the drug. If you\u2019re in Bangor in Northern Ireland – you can\u2019t. I\u2019m fed up talking about postcode lotteries when it comes to things like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Lawler offered to engage directly with the Minister for Health to find a solution. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing when something is so much better not just for the patient but also for the health system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis seems a win-win for everybody \u2014 but obviously not for patients in Northern Ireland at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Health has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s cancer patients are being left behind in a \u2018postcode lottery\u2019 as a revolutionary new injectable cancer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[258,103,61,60,99985],"class_list":["post-432150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-queen-s-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432150","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=432150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}