Belfast Trust: 'For some cancer patients it will be too late'
Warning disease may have taken hold by the time surgery is re-scheduled
The Chief Executive of the Belfast Trust has issued a stark message as Covid pressures consume our hospitals.
Dr Cathy Jack was giving evidence to Stormont's Health Committee on Thursday.
Some trusts had to cancel some urgent cancer surgery in a bid to prepare for the peak of the third surge of the pandemic.
On Wednesday Health Minister Robin Swann said he couldn't give a definitive date for postponed operations to be re-scheduled.
Dr Jack warned for a small number of patients, the disease may have taken hold by then:
"Can I put on record my sincere apologies that we cannot treat everyone the way we want to treat them, none of this is easy, none of us want to be here.
"There is moral distress amongst our staff but that is nothing in comparison to the anguish and devastation those families are facing, particularly those who had a date for surgery which was then ripped out as we had to prepare for Covid."
She added that contingency plans are in place to try and stall the spread of the disease:
"We are offering some of those patients neoadjuvant chemotherapy, that is chemotherapy before surgery, to try and bide time or hold the cancer.
"That is not optimal, we would not normally do that and whilst the majority will be safe to do that, there will be a small but significant portion of people when they come to surgery, it will be too late and the disease will have spread."