Richard Boyd Barrett: One shot - Radiotherapy needs fixing

Thanks Chair. I'm not a member of the committee but it was very educational to hear everything that our contributors have said today and let me just thank you all for your contributions and your work and yeah I'd like to you know reiterate my personal thanks to all of you for what you do, what you did for me and what you're doing for so many thousands of people year in year out in providing life-saving treatment and if I can repeat my thanks to Sinead Bryan and my own radio oncologist and to Clina Grant who did the chemotherapy I know we're talking about radio oncology today and Conrad Tyman who did the surgery for me but yeah it was it's almost a year to the day since I started my treatment in St. Luke's and one of the things and maybe you might say something about this because I think it is important to dramatize the importance of what you're saying because like basically I'm alive today and many others are because of linear accelerators and the people who operate those and to prepare the plan and provide all the sort of ancillary supports in St. Luke's and all the other places to deliver cancer services across the country and one I won't say who it was but one very sobering thing was said to me in St. James's very early when I got the diagnosis that I had throat cancer was you get one pass at this treatment for throat cancer we're confident that we can do it but you get one pass at it and that was pretty sobering for me I can tell you so like the question of precision but maybe you could just elaborate that the precision of the machines it strikes me is pretty important for whether it's successful and the degree to which the the collateral damage of the treatment which I'm still feeling the effects of how significant that is and obviously you did a very good job in my case and I'm very very grateful but I'm also conscious that that the precision makes a big difference to what is an extremely difficult treatment and when I was first strapped into that thing with the mask on and all the rest of it and there were days when there were delays and there were breakdowns you know just what is already a difficult thing became a lot more difficult and I could see it for the staff and I could see people having to be hooshed around and you know there were days when everything was working and it was nice and calm and you know it was difficult it was still kind of pretty hard going to put it mildly but at least you were going through a difficult thing in a relatively sort of calm and organized way and then there were other days when the machines were broke down and the place was packed with people and they're having to be sent away and come back and people who are giving them lifts in and there was people from different parts of the country and you just thought Jesus people don't need that they really don't need that so I just want to say first of all how important what you said is but maybe you just talk a little bit yeah about the importance of the precision and how getting the new machines that you need and the proper replacement program and the procurement the tenders out you know why that's so important for the patients and the staff you know it's brilliant you're here so it's a it's fantastic and thanks for you you couldn't have said it better I think to be honest but the machines these are couple of tons machines that move in 360 degree rotations that can scan patients they deliver treatment they deliver treatment energy up to 18 million volts these are really spectacular you know and they but they're so cost-effective I mean they are you know we they cost a couple of million but they'll run for 10 years treating thousands of patients and you know that again it's you couldn't ask for a better you know economic model in terms of and the big thing but radiotherapy is that you get to preserve the organ you treat generally if you treat with surgery has to be taken out it's gone and that's the all effects that so this is a really worthwhile thing to do and we know it from our clinical trials that we do precision has to be a millimeter accuracy and it's that bit that we're not that we're we're at risk of not delivering if we don't keep up to date and what's happening really therapy is that we used to treat with old big fields that treated a lot of the body with a lot of toxicity really there's got a lot less toxic thankfully not we're not there yet but we're improving all the time and it's about reducing the fields to exactly where the cancer is and shaping that that million vote beam around the cancer make sure it's exactly where we need it to be and that's where we need the best equipment to give Irish patients the best chance that one shot that you mentioned making sure we don't miss but if we take the case in point of a throat cancer I mean the things we do in our head and neck are the things that define us as humans you know we see we talk we swallow we taste and when you try and tackle a cancer in that area there's a danger to those vital functions and with the newer machines the ones that we want that we don't have we will be ever more precise in terms of how we design and deliver the treatment so right now we don't miss the tumor because we make sure we don't miss the tumor but we radiate pieces of you that don't need to be radiators we don't want that anymore we want to cut down the side effects and improve quality of a life just as a you know clinical radiation therapist I see techniques coming through where with some of the newer technology you can utilize the pictures that we've taken for your treatment if there's changes in your body we can use those pictures to slightly adapt the treatment and with the older systems we can't do that so yeah and I want to thank your team in particular for one of the ways I used to deal with it you know because it is difficult being strapped into those machines they used to play me songs I different songs they played for me of but when it was delayed like the difference between 15 or 20 minutes strapped to that thing you know the around you and Richard for yeah it's wonderful to see you here today and but for people who have to do that twice maybe on a day or you know it's on it's unnecessary it makes things so much more difficult and again there's everybody is different so different people cope with it in different ways it's it's like delays some people can cope with it and they can wait other people can't you know other people stress about the people waiting for them outside they stress about you know collecting kids there's there's a whole mix that comes into the patient experience and any like you're obviously I can't speak from from the perspective of the patient but from this from observations and from the reports that people you know very generously feedback to us on how they are coping and whether they are coping yeah well listen you you guys were great but you don't need to stress on either to the patients of those machines breaking down and it did happen you know on a frequent basis I think my machine was slightly better but it did happen with me as well but well I could give testimony of a patient or it happened five times for one patient yeah you know that's except that's that's very difficult for that person and but I saw in the initial in the initial statements that you were raising the issue John of like the need for sort of future planning as far back as 2003 so we're talking an unbelievable and quite frankly disgraceful 20 what's that 23 years for 23 years you've been asking the government to sort of future plan the replacement of the treatment necessary to save people's lives with radiotherapy and you still haven't got what you need