New unit will cater for cancer sufferers

CANCER sufferers in the south-east could have full treatment services in one base in the region within two years.

Health Minister Mary Harney is expected to confirm next month that a new 100-bed private wing at Waterford Regional Hospital will provide radiotherapy for public as well as private patients under a public/private partnership deal.

Last Friday, Transport Minister Martin Cullen laid the foundation stone for a separate 40-bed Whitfield Clinic, which will also provide radiotherapy within 18 months.

Mr Cullen said that public as well as private patients would be treated there, though no service agreement has yet been reached with the Department of Health.

The Whitfield development will not impact on a separate 100-bed private wing with radiotherapy proposed at Waterford Regional Hospital by consultants there, according to one of the key medics behind the project, Dr Rob Landers.

If given the go-ahead, it would lead to surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy being provided on one site.

"We hope that the Tánaiste can make an announcement about our project in June," said Dr Landers. "Our new 100-bed wing at WRH will incorporate day care and radiotherapy and would free up 85 public beds in the hospital. It would have to go to tender as it would be on public property a process which could take around six months. It would take a further 18 months to build and get up and running," said Dr Landers.

The Department of Health would only confirm last night that talks had taken place with consultants at WRH about their proposed development. The matter is still being considered by the minister, a spokesman at her office said. The medical board at WRH as well as campaigners for public radiotherapy in the region have consistently maintained that WRH is the best place for an integrated, all-inclusive service for the 3,000 sufferers struck with cancer in the south-east each year.

Campaigner Jane Bailey has called for clarity on the issue and on the provision of radiotherapy nationally. She says the principal of the Hollywood report on radiotherapy was based on concerns about small radiotherapy units.

The Waterford branch of the Socialist Workers Party yesterday described the public-private partnership arrangement as a "Thatcherite solution to the lack of radiotherapy services in the south-east" and called for the immediate installation of a public funded and controlled radiotherapy unit in Waterford Regional Hospital.

"Although this is a victory for the campaign in that the unit will not be in a separate clinic, this is absolutely no compensation for a public radiotherapy service," a party spokesperson said.

"There is no guarantee that public patients will be seen in this new unit and even if they are they will be a long way down the queue behind those who can afford to pay. This means the health apartheid will continue."