Perhaps it is inevitable that news stories about healthcare provision in Ireland tend to dwell on the negative. Waiting lists, trolley counts and treatment delays are the daily currency of health coverage, and for good reason, since they reflect real hardship. But when genuinely good news arrives, it should be acknowledged. One such story is the long-term trend in cancer outcomes, set out this week in a comprehensive analysis from the National Cancer Registry.
The figures are striking. Overall five-year survival for invasive cancers has risen from 50 per cent for those diagnosed two decades ago to 66 per cent for people diagnosed more recently. Where once only half of patients could expect to be alive five years on, now two in three can, and for some cancers survival approaches 95 per cent. The number of people living after a cancer diagnosis has passed 200,000 for the first time. The registry also records falling death rates, with the median age at cancer death now higher than in the 1990s.
It is true that overall case numbers keep rising, but this is largely because the population grew significantly and is ageing. Adjusted for these factors, the underlying risk of developing cancer has also fallen.
These figures are a vindication of policy choices, chief among them the centralisation of treatment into designated centres of excellence, alongside earlier diagnosis and better therapies.
But there is much more to be done. Delays persist in key areas, from colonoscopies to radiation therapy, where targets are routinely missed. On several measures Ireland trails European peers such as Denmark and Belgium, on treatment-time guarantees, diagnostic equipment, drug reimbursement and clinical trial access.
With a growing and ageing population, the challenge will be to build on this progress while ensuring the State secures the best possible value from the enormous sums it now invests annually in health. The progress is welcome and undeniable, but there is no room for complacency.