Government breaks guidelines for cancer care

THE Government is breaking its own guidelines for the safe provision of chemotherapy by failing to provide dedicated cancer wards at hospitals.

The Department of Health guidelines state: “Cancer chemotherapy should be administered in designated inpatient or day care outpatient facilities which are properly staffed and equipped for the purpose.”

Yet neither Cork University Hospital (CUH) nor Waterford Regional Hospital (WRH) has a dedicated inpatient cancer ward. WRH has just six dedicated inpatient beds (not a ward) and in CUH, cancer patients are scattered throughout the hospital.