A new cancer strategy has today been revealed by Minister for Health Simon Harris, who has pledged to spend up to €2 billion on cancer services over the next ten years.
Susan O'Reilly, CEO of Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, says that there will be an increased need for these services as more and more people are diagnosed with cancer.
"There's going to be a huge pressure on demand for cancer services because the incidence of cancer up to 2040 is expected to nearly double, due to the fact that the population is aging."
Susan also says there will be a strong focus on cancer prevention, and that "the survival figures will continue to grow exponentially."
Deirdre Grant, CEO of ARC, welcomes the idea of the strategy providing more support services to cancer patients.
"There's a very strong focus on the patient's voice. There's talk of working in conjunction with cancer support programmes."
Dermot Breen, chairman of the Irish Cancer Society, would like to see improvements in facilities for early detection.
"We can't afford to have a world class facility in every county in the country, but we do need at least one major facility which all the other facilities can learn and feed off."
"We have some pretty good screening processes in place, such as breast check and bowel screenings, which we need to expand on. We need to get very serious about prevention programmes. This is a growing epidemic in Ireland, but 40% of cancers are preventable."
