Lung cancer cases have doubled in Northern Ireland’s rural and coastal areas as the population ages, an expert report has warned.
Dr Wendy Anderson spoke to the Irish News as a new report has set out recommendations to help overwhelmed services.
Over 1,300 people are still diagnosed with the disease every year, with nearly half (44%) at a late stage when curative treatment is rarely possible.
Despite a general drop in smoking and better treatments, Dr Anderson said those living in deprived areas were still twice as vulnerable and cases in rural and coastal areas have doubled in the last 20 years.
She also warned young people about the long-term dangers of getting hooked on vapes at an early age.
Dr Wendy Anderson MBE, Respiratory Physician and Interim Chair of the Northern Ireland Lung Cancer Clinical Reference Group
Another issue is the “unacceptable delays” facing lung cancer patients, with just 42.7% of patients seen within the 62-day national target.
“Parts of Northern Ireland have doubled their over-75 population in the last 20 years and they’ll double again,” Dr Anderson said.
“That’s what’s driving all the demands. That’s why western society can’t cope with healthcare demands.
“The interesting thing about the demographics, is that ageing is rural and coastal.
“So the biggest rise in lung cancers has been in the Northern Trust which has the oldest population, with the South Eastern Trust second.
“Deprivation is more in towns, which is why the baseline rise in Belfast and Derry is higher.
“But the real rise in healthcare needs is rural and coastal, but we’re still contracting and commissioning services without properly looking at the numbers.
“There are five times more care of the elderly doctors in Belfast than we have in Causeway.
“We also really need the surgery issue sorted, there’s no point in bringing people up for lung cancer treatment if we haven’t got the surgeons to deliver.
“Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, already called for more resources to be moved to rural and coastal areas in 2023.”
Thinking of her own retirement years, Dr Anderson said she had considered a move to the north coast.
“The problem with that is there aren’t enough young people to look after you,” she said.
“So even if we have the money, we don’t have the people. If you need a care package or a nursing home, we need to start to build appropriate accommodation.”
Dr Anderson said highly addictive vapes being marketed towards children was a huge concern for the future (Alamy Stock Photo)
On the effects of vaping, she noted they could vary from nicotine replacement to flavoured options containing different chemicals.
“There’s evidence that they’re highly addictive and people are deliberately marketing them to schoolchildren in the way cigarettes used to be,” she said.
“I know of one school in Co Antrim where there’s a vaping shop right across the street. The kids are coming in and they can’t get through a lesson without having a vape.
“Quite often the tobacco companies are involved in this and they’re clever, they know it will take us a while to catch up with the legislation.
“These are very malign influences and we will undoubtedly have a consequence to that in the next 30 years, even if we don’t yet know what that is.”
A report from lung cancer experts in Northern Ireland has set out recommendations to help struggling services
The report, ‘Northern Ireland Blueprint for Lung Cancer,’ calls for targeted lung cancer screening linked to smoking cessation – described as the most effective intervention to increase survival, especially in deprived communities.
In England, this method has already detected 8,500 lung cancers with three-quarters at an early stage, while Northern Ireland has made “no progress”.
Other demands are to cut red tape to allow Northern Ireland to participate in a National Lung Cancer Audit, improve radiology training and invest in artificial intelligence.
The final recommendation is to expand surgical capacity and access to modern procedures like robotic surgery.