Dear Madam, - The calculation and collation of statistics can indicate some very cruel consequences. We are told that one in three people will suffer from cancer, in one form or another, at some stage of their lives. And it isn’t only the patient who suffers, but their families and carers as well.

The plight of cancer sufferers is carefully considered and publicised in The Impartial Reporter’s edition of October 2, and it gave an incisive indication as to how some sufferers deal positively with the disease. Yet the leading cancer charity Cancer Focus Northern Ireland points out that there are currently 38 cancer drugs available to patients in England that are not readily available to patients in Northern Ireland. Cancer Focus, therefore, invites the public to support a campaign to obtain Equal Access to life-extending cancer drugs for patients here. But the campaign was launched in June, so why is it taking so long for this to be done?

The previous Health Minister, Edwin Poots, promised to hold a review of the cancer drug approval process in the Province. But in a recent television interview, the newly appointed Health Minister, Jim Wells, stated that, within his present budget, deciding in favour of such expenditure could result in, for example, less money being spent on some heart surgical procedures. Is the treatment of the cancer sufferers who might benefit from these special drugs to be dependent on some lottery or luck of the draw? What utter bunkum. The money can be found from other funds. Why this indecision and delay on such a crucial issue? Action should be urgent and sooner rather than later.

Reviews, consultations, more mealy-mouthed meetings, and months meandering around the subject are no way in which to find a speedy solution to such a pressing problem in the twenty-first century. As cancer sufferers deal with the day and night agony and torment of cancer’s cruel consequences, they deserve prompt attention to their critical needs.

The present unacceptable indecision and snail-like progress of the grinding wheels of officialdom, which are cruelly adding to the sum of suffering, are outdated and outmoded. They are reminiscent of the mindless machinations of the poorly run ‘Circumlocution Office’, in the novel ‘Little Dorrit’ by Charles Dickens, where everything went round and round in circles and no one took responsibility to come to quick decisions. Where are the positive politicians and statesmen/women who will settle this matter in a week? What is required, in the words of the great statesman Winston Churchill, is to bring about “Action This Day”?!

Yours faithfully, NEIL C. OLIVER Castle Toppy 114 Crawfordsburn Road, Newtownards