THE Government is being urged to act on the true cost of cancer, which Cork TDs say are putting some patients under significant financial pressure.

It is also being urged to put a stop to the situation where debt collection agencies are used to collect monies owed to public hospitals from patients with cancer.

The call to action coincides with World Cancer Day, which takes place today.

For individuals who do not have a medical card or private health insurance, every chemotherapy or radiotherapy appointment currently costs €80, to a maximum of €800 per annum.

Invoices are often sent to patients within days of their first treatment being administered and, if they are not paid within six weeks, debt collection agencies are hired to pursue the debt.

Speaking to The Echo, West Cork Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns said it was “unconscionable” that cancer patients are being pursued by debt collection agencies for bills related to their treatment.

“It is frankly disgusting that patients, while they are at their most vulnerable in the middle of their treatment, are put under this kind of unnecessary strain,” she said.

The Cork TD said that a cancer diagnosis “causes enough trauma and distress, without hospitals heaping further financial pressure on to patients through their callous use of these agencies.”

Ms Cairns continued: “Cancer patients should be focused on just one thing — getting better. Regrettably, this is not helped by the huge financial stress caused by a diagnosis.

“A 2019 report from the Irish Cancer Society conservatively estimated this additional cost was €756 per month,” she said.

“In some cases, it is more than €1,000 per month. Given the increase in the cost of living since 2019, it is likely these figures are now higher. This additional cost comes at a time when many suffer a loss in income, which averages €1,500 per month.

“As well as inpatient fees, costs include car parking, medication, counselling, wigs, and additional childcare and heating costs. Hospital parking charges are an expense that the Government could act on now, but it has failed to do so,” she said.

In the Dáil, the Social Democrats called for the €80 inpatient charge to be abolished for cancer patients, for public hospitals to no longer use debt collection agencies, and for the commitment in the Programme for Government to introduce caps on parking charges be immediately introduced.

There are also other costs facing some people.

Speaking in the Dáil, Ms Cairns described how she was contacted by a young woman who had her hand amputated due to cancer.

“She does not qualify for a primary medical certificate to allow her to purchase and adapt a car because she had one hand amputated, rather than the criteria of two hands,” she said.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould said a cancer diagnosis was “absolutely devastating for any individual and family” and it was “completely unacceptable that in the midst of all of the upset and fear, anger and sickness” the HSE are sending debt collection agencies to people.

“We often look at America’s healthcare model with pity, people dying because they can’t afford basic medicines. But this is no better, sending debt collectors out to ordinary people going through chemo,” he said.

The HSE has been contacted by The Echo for comment.