A hi-tech skin cancer service, which could provide rapid treatment for patients, has still not been fully taken up by more than two thirds of the 13 national dermatology departments, despite its uptake in Dublin hospitals.
The service, which is provided by AllView Healthcare, offers skin cancer and medical skin treatment services using cutting edge technology.
Speaking in Dublin today, Mr Eoin O’Reilly, CEO AllView Healthcare commented, following direct recent conversations with Minister for Health, HSE Acute Services and local hospital management teams all of whom have been trying to get the service started for over a year, that the project is being directly blocked by local key personal within some of the dermatology departments.
Dublin hospitals such as St. James’s Hospital, Beaumont Hospital and Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, along with Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda, have all used AllView’s Teledermatology service to drastically reduce waiting lists, by treating over 15,000 HSE patients in the last two years.
Allview Healthcare have today confirmed renewal of its HSE contract to deliver capacity for a further 20,000 patients who are currently on hospital public waiting lists, to access its dermatology service in Ireland for 2024. This is a continuation of previously awarded contracts which, in 2022, resulted in AllView significantly reducing dermatology waiting lists in 5 hospitals.
Mr Tony O’Brien, former Director General of the HSE, is a board member of AllView Healthcare and heads up its Medical Governance Committee thereby ensuring patient-focused best practice compliance is maintained at all times.
The increase in patients waiting for their first appointment increased from September 2023 to October 2023 by 1,293 patients. The overall public patient waiting list for first time dermatology appointments currently stands at 54,488 and has increased month on month for the last ten months by a total of 8,484 patients. Over 10,000 public patients are waiting more than 12 months for their first appointment. (Source: National Treatment Purchase Fund, September 2023 / www.ntpf.ie)
Allview Healthcare had the ability to see and treat 20,000 patients across Ireland in 2023 for the HSE, yet only less than 4,000 patients were sent to the service nationwide by hospitals.
With such grave concerns being voiced by GPs across the country such as the recent outburst from local GPs in Letterkenny and Sligo, CEO Mr. O’Reilly, said that despite regular positive interactions with both the HSE and local hospital management wanting to deploy its services, the blockage to the green light being given for their service to go live in certain hospitals, is being held up directly within the dermatology departments itself within each hospital for reasons unknown.
AllView were recently awarded a major contract for the provision of dermatology services by the VHI Healthcare, under which it now offers members an appointment within 10 days, and a consultation with treatment, including surgery if required, within weeks.
Our service is enabling patients to be quickly seen and treated. Mr O’Reilly said “we wish to also make a significant contribution to the reduction of public dermatology waiting lists; however, we first need to be sent the patients by the hospitals to treat those patients. Patients are not referred to us in sufficient numbers to make any noticeable difference to the dermatology waiting lists despite being awarded public contracts, and having huge unused capacity on hold for the HSE’
Mr O’Reilly, also stated: “It is shocking that a few key staff within any department hold the power to block patients access to such service and stopping the hospital management from deploying such a modern and proven service like ours, when their current waiting time to see a patient is several years duration.
He said: “We have local nationwide clinics where we can see and treat patients. We have had over 100 melanoma patients last year, with Breslow thickness of our cancer patients the lowest in the country at 0.68mm, proving early access to care have lifesaving outcomes for patients.” (Breslow thickness is the globally recognised standard to measure the cancers stages).
Dr Rupert Barry, Consultant Dermatologist from St James’s Hospital and AllView Healthcare co-founder, said: “Most people are not aware that 98% of skin cancer cases are curable through early detection. Using a rapid access method such as AllView Healthcare Teledermatology ensures the right patient, to get seen by the right person, in the right timeframe”.
He added: “Based on our current patient trends and global norms, almost 10% of these 50,000+ patients will have cancer and approximately 500/600 patients may have the more severe cancer type of Melanoma.”
Dr Barry also stressed “that early detection of skin cancer leads to far better outcomes. The most obvious warning signs of skin cancer are a change in the appearance of the skin, such as a new growth, a sore that will not heal, a new and changing mole, or a change in appearance of an existing mole’ you should go to your GP with this immediately.”
Allview Healthcare is Ireland’s largest dermatology service provider who offer skin cancer and medical skin treatment services using cutting edge technology by Consultant Dermatologists based across Ireland.
Allview Healthcare is on the HSE national framework to provide its services free to the local hospitals, as this is funded centrally by HSE Acute Services and the NTPF. The company has received many awards for its service using Teledermatology technology within the overall service.
Further information on Allview Healthcare visit: www.allview.ie
PHOTO: L/R – Dr Rupert Barry, Consultant Dermatologist & Co-founder AllView Healthcare, and Eoin O’Reilly, CEO & Co-founder, AllView Healthcare, pictured with Nora Chiorascu, Head of Operations and Jennifer Luke, Project Manager.
Ends
For further information contact: Tony O’Brien, Wide Awake Communications – 087 2438 584
More on AllView Healthcare:
AllView is an Irish company providing a new, innovative dermatology and teledermatology service provider across Ireland. AllView enables the patient to get a rapid, accurate diagnosis from a leading dermatology consultants in Ireland. AllView are working with Ireland’s leading Consultant Dermatologists, Plastic surgeons and Maxillofacial surgeons.
