Focus on radiotherapy services in troubled report

A CONTROVERSIAL report on radiotherapy services which claimed patients did not rate travelling for treatment among their top 10 concerns will come under the Dáil spotlight today.

The Government and Opposition parties are due to make statements on The Development of Radiation Oncology Services report, which recommends that future development of radiotherapy services be confined to centres of excellence in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

The Government-commissioned expert report gave rise to a public outcry in the south-east and mid-west when it was published last October because it ignored demands for locally -accessible treatment centres in Waterford and Limerick, where cancer surgery and chemotherapy treatments are available.

Mayo TD and member of Cancer Care Alliance (CCA) Dr Jerry Cowley said there were recognised protocols which showed a three-pronged treatment approach, involving surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, provided the best chance of a cure to cancer patients.

“But in Limerick and Waterford radiotherapy is missing. Instead patients may have to wait months for an appointment in Cork or Dublin,” he said.

Jane Bailey, a Waterford-based member of CCA, said the radiotherapy report had ignored its own finding that equity of access to quality radiotherapy was the right of all cancer patients.

“The report significantly fails to meet the needs of cancer patients of access to multi-disciplinary best practice in cancer care outside Dublin, Cork and Galway.”

“CCA does not accept Minister Martin’s statement that in developing centralised radiotherapy services, geography will not be a barrier to equal access,” he said.

Ms Bailey said CCA had come up with alternative proposals for the development of radiotherapy services, including the development of regional cancer centres in the south-east and mid-west with St Luke’s acting as the co-ordinating centre for the south side of Dublin in the short term.

Deputy Cowley said services meant patients in the south-east and mid-west spent hours travelling for 10 minutes of treatment.

He said the money spent on transporting patients by ambulance and taxi and in paying for overnight B&Bs would be better spent on locally-based linear accelerators for cancer treatment.

Patients in the mid-west have to wait approximately five months for radiotherapy treatment in Dublin.

Labour health spokesperson Liz McManus TD said it was time for a Dáil debate on the merits of the radiotherapy report rather than individual statements by the various Government parties.