Hospital unit idle over lack of funding

A HOSPITAL from which a cancer specialist resigned in frustration at the lack of a dedicated ward for his patients has rooms lying idle due to lack of funding.

Dr Oscar Breathnach has resigned from his post of consultant oncologist at Cork University Hospital (CUH) after four years of campaigning for a seven-day dedicated cancer ward. Yesterday his colleague, consultant oncologist Dr Seamus O’Reilly, said the ward could be provided if a new day procedures unit at the hospital was opened up. The 35-bed unit is part of a €24 million A&E department lying idle for over a year because of the lack of funding to staff it. Dr O’Reilly said if the day procedures unit opened, it would free up beds elsewhere in the hospital, paving the way for a 30-bed cancer ward at a cost of €1.6m per quarter.

“We could create what there is professional consensus on a need for here: that is, a dedicated haemotology/oncology/radiotherapy and palliative care ward,” said Dr O’Reilly.