Breast cancer diagnosis and treatment wait ‘traumatic’ for women, GP says

A County Antrim GP has said she is “very concerned” about the situation of women needing breast cancer treatment in Northern Ireland after three patients in her surgery were given late cancer diagnoses.

The patients are among 32 women at the Notting Hill North Trust-based medical practice who were red flagged over a five-month period this year.

Three women who asked to protect their identities have had to wait more than eight weeks to see a consultant, while nine others are still waiting, one more than 10 weeks.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt apologized but Dr Gilly O'Hagan told BBC News NI the wait was “traumatic”.

Performance on the Nolan showThe Health Secretary said he could not ask people to be patient as it was “potentially a matter of life and death”.

“I'm sorry, I'm saying I'd like to reassure you that I take this personally, I want to try to reassure them that I'm working with officials, with doctors, with health and social care workers to try to fix this,” he said.

“The pathways are broken and I don't accept people who say the health service is broken because once you get into treatment your overall treatment is first class.

“The challenge is how to access that care in a timely manner.”

One of the women said she had been in limbo for months and “just wants to get rid of cancer.”

She said that after being told there were more than 80,000 women ahead of her on the waiting list, she paid for a private test that confirmed she had stage two breast cancer.

The woman said she was “furious” about the delay and was feeling mental and physical stress.

Dr O'Hagan said such deficiencies did not occur in England, Scotland and Wales and asked why women in Northern Ireland should receive “substandard services”.

“The new regional breast cancer service is not functioning – there is a bottleneck, they are not meeting the red flag targets for women,” Dr O'Hagan said.

“This hasn’t happened before, it doesn’t work.”

A red flag referral means that the GP believes that if cancer is suspected, the patient should be treated as a priority based on specific clinical symptoms outlined by the Northern Ireland Cancer Network (NICaN).

These referrals have the highest priority on waiting lists and patients should ideally be seen by a specialist within two weeks.

After diagnosis, the period for starting treatment is 62 days.

Between April and June 2025, around 840 patients (67%) waited more than 62 days to start cancer treatment after an urgent referral to a GP for suspected cancer.

The Southern Trust woman, who has stage four breast cancer, said all the “conversations between different providers and hospitals” had delayed her diagnosis.

In her early 40s, she said she was in a state of “emotional disaster” after being told different results at different medical institutions.

“My care was inadequate, disconnected and impersonal,” she said.

In June, the woman first felt what she described as a “tugging” under her arm.

It was two weeks before she was able to make an appointment with her GP, who upon examination found a pea-sized lump and gave her a red flag in early July.

Because there was a family history of breast cancer, the woman had two annual mammograms, both of which were clear.

After she was red flagged, there was confusion as she received a message from Craigavon ​​District Hospital and was then referred to Ulster Hospital, a different health centre.

The mother-of-three was considering seeking private treatment in Northern Ireland or the Irish Republic.

The pea-sized lump became larger, and the breast became red and swollen.

Almost 10 weeks after her first appointment with her GP, she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in August and began chemotherapy at the end of October.

“It was terrible and my family and I are emotional wrecks,” she said.

The experience prompted her to write to the health minister.

Cancer Research UK's Nasser Turabi said waiting times for cancer treatment in Northern Ireland were the worst in the UK.

Too many patients wait too long for treatment, particularly for lung, gynecological and blood cancers, which can often be quite aggressive, Mr Turabi told BBC News NI.

“This is about patient safety and survival: about 70% of patients miss their target each month, and that's thousands of people whose treatment is delayed and potentially harmed.”

Research shows that getting treatment quickly is critical, as every four-week delay reduces patient survival by an average of 10%.

In August BBC News NI reported that some patients who were red flagged They wait up to 10 weeks to evaluate breast cancer.

The target set by Northern Ireland's Department of Health, which oversees five health and social care trusts, is 14 days.

Sinn Féin's Philip McGuigan, chairman of Stormont's health committee, said women were being let down.

“In the three months to June this year, almost 2,000 patients were seen by breast cancer specialists after being urgently referred for breast cancer,” he said.

“Only 129 of these patients were seen within 14 days of urgent referral.

“As such, examples of Dr O'Hagan's practice are unfortunately all too common in the north and are completely unacceptable.”

Another committee member, the DUP's Diane Dodds, said the new regional cancer service “doesn't really seem to be designed in a way that makes it effective and gets women to see a doctor much earlier”.

She said it wasn't just breast cancer patients who had failed: “In the quarter to June 2025, 840 patients – two thirds of all patients diagnosed with cancer – waited longer than 62 days to start treatment.

“This is a terrifying statistic for all tumors and all cancers.”

A statement from the Department of Health said: “A single regional waiting list for breast screening was introduced in May to address regional inequalities in people accessing breast screening.

“However, the current core capacity of the breast assessment service is insufficient to meet current demand.

“For this reason, £5 million has been allocated through the Elective Care Framework to address this capacity gap.”

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said he recognized “delays in access to breast screening will increase patient anxiety” and welcomed the fact that women had been waiting around seven weeks for appointments in recent weeks.

“Although this is still too long, I expect this figure to continue to decline,” he added.

More than 122,600 anxious or urgent patients have been seen or treated since April 2025, with plans to reach about 226,700 patients by the end of the year, according to the Ministry of Health.

“Waiting for outpatients over four years has fallen by 29%, representing 29,500 patients, and waiting times for treatment have fallen by 41%, representing 8,300 patients,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier this year, £215 million was allocated to tackle hospital queues.

But on Tuesday Health Minister Mike Nesbitt confirmed that a third of this money has since been redirected to cope with the huge deficit of the Department of Health (DoH).

During an assembly debate on cancer waiting times, the minister said more than £70 million had been used to address budget problems.

The Department of Health faces a £600 million deficit and is reducing this figure through efficiency improvements.

Nesbitt told caucus members there have been some improvements in hospital waiting lists, but acknowledged there is still more work to be done.