Harney stands by cancer-care decision
Tánaiste Mary Harney today defended her decision not to build a cancer treatment centre for people in the north-west.
Cancer groups in Donegal have expressed concern that patients may suffer hardship by making journeys of up to 150 miles for cancer treatment in Belfast.
But Ms Harney said she was standing by her decision to approve the development of four large centres for cancer sufferers in Dublin, Cork and Galway, as well as two satellite centres in Waterford and Limerick.
“To establish a centre in Donegal or the north-west that would stand alone and isolated would not deliver the best cancer care. We’re not going to get the kind of outcomes that we expect,” she said.
The capital investment programme for cancer care announced yesterday will amount to more than €400m, with much of it funded through Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives.
It aims to put a national network of radiation treatment services for cancer sufferers in place by 2011.
Ms Harney said that cancer patients in Donegal would have access to a new treatment facility in Belfast City Hospital which is being opened next year.
“It makes an awful lot of sense to have cancer treatment for Donegal and maybe other border counties linked into Belfast. Going to Belfast in the short term will be an awful lot easier for the vast majority of patients in Donegal than travelling to Dublin or indeed to Galway,” she told RTÉ radio.
Discussions will be held with the Northern Ireland health authorities in the autumn with a view to developing a satellite cancer treatment centre for the north-west region.
“I’ve heard Professor John Armstrong (from the St Luke’s Institute for Cancer Research) talk about Derry. My own preference, I’d prefer perhaps Letterkenny,” said Ms Harney.
Under the new investment programme, the number of linear accelerators - machines used to treat cancer patients – will be increased from 23 to 36.
The equipment will be spread among the four large centres in Dublin, with 13 linear accelerators at St James’ and seven at Beaumont Hospital, seven in Cork and five in Galway – plus the integrated satellite centres with two in both Waterford and Limerick.
The plan aims to deliver expertise to all cancer patients through multi-disciplinary teams involving surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which was outlined in a 2003 report, The Development Of Radiation Oncology Services in Ireland.
