Doctor backed in indictment of cancer services

LETTERS and pledges of support have been pouring in for Dr Séamus O'Reilly since a letter he sent to the Tánaiste and the Health Service Executive (HSE) outlining the chronic state of cancer services was published earlier this week.

Sources close to the medical oncologist said he was being flooded with support by colleagues and patients and that he stood over his damning assessment of cancer care in the south.

In the letter, he outlined how dying patients could not find beds and had ended up in wards with drunken patients. He described the hospital's IT system as "dangerous" and inadequate and that excessive surgery and chemotherapy were being used due to the lack of breast screening facilities.

However Cork University Hospital General Manager, Tony McNamara, strongly defended the services last night, saying that significant developments had been made in recent years.

"Affirmation of the quality of service was evidenced by the fact that CUH was named earlier this year as Ireland's first and only designated centre in integrated oncology and palliative care. CUH is one of only eight centres chosen to receive this designation from the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) for the excellence of their supportive treatment for cancer patients," he said.

Mr McNamara added Dr O'Reilly should have consulted with him before he sent the controversial letter as he was aware funding approval was due within days for a €47 million oncology, cardiac and renal unit.

"A letter of approval was issued by the HSE on October 28 to proceed to tender. Dr O' Reilly's letter was received on November 1 having been sent on November 27. The application for contractors for this unit was submitted to the EU journals today," he said.

According to Dr O'Reilly's letter, he and his former colleague, Dr Oscar Breathnach, had been fighting for the unit for four years. Construction on the unit is due to begin next year. It will not be ready for use for three years after that.

The HSE repeated last night arrangements were being made for the establishment of a 10-bed medical oncology ward at CUH. Nursing sources at the hospital said they believed five beds from a medical ward were now to be used for oncology while another five in a ward across the corridor would also be used for cancer services. One of Dr O'Reilly's principal complaints in his letter concerned the lack of a dedicated oncology ward across Cork's four acute hospitals.

INO Industrial Relations Officer Patsy Doyle said the hospital's oncology nurses fully backed the doctor's complaints and said that Dr O'Reilly had "personally taken on a huge workload" since Dr Breathnach, who resigned in March over resource issues, left CUH. A locum oncologist had also been helping him.

Meanwhile a west Cork woman whose mother was a patient of Dr O'Reilly's also sent a letter to politicians and to the Irish Examiner further backing his claims of insufficient resources to cope with cancer patients. She outlined how her mother was loathe to return to CUH as on the last occasion, she spent 11 hours in a room that stank of urine while she waited for a bed.

"Although those staff were outstanding, patients were subjected to a distinct smell of urine and, I believe, unhealthy conditions," Rosie Murphy wrote.

"At the very least you would think these people would be allowed dignity. Why would we send her back there? I fully support Dr O'Reilly in what he wrote as he has never been anything but fantastic to us and our family," she said.

Her mother's loss of dignity prompted Rosie to write this letter, which reflects widespread anger over inadequate cancer care in the south

I AM writing to you on behalf of my terminally ill mother, a distraught husband who will lose his partner of 32 years and four daughters who will shortly be without a mother.

This lady has always provided us, a family, with comfort, love and support as she has done for her own patients of the Southern Health Board where she has worked for over 20 years. Two weeks ago she was extremely unwell and what you would expect to be a given for a dying woman, we as a family, Dr Mary Roycroft as a GP and Dr Seamus O'Reilly as a consultant, could not offer her with any of these gestures of love, comfort or support.

This was not due to lack of trying but due to a health service that has failed us, a minister that has done little to help and a hospital that has insufficient beds and staff.

In this day and age, with the amount of health insurance and medical developments, my mother should not be in pain and certainly not be forced to stay at home and have her 20-year-old daughter be her only carer.

I would like to commend Dr O'Reilly on his service and support. From very early on in my mother's illness he has provided both her and our family with great comfort and also uncharacteristically as a consultant, gave us his mobile number to contact in any event. I also know he has done the same for many other cancer patients that have found him outstanding as a consultant and most of all as a friend.

On October 23 last my mother lay in bed at home crying with pain and Dr O'Reilly could offer us no help as the hospital were short of beds and staff.

We were forced to watch a lady with pride and dignity dying in front of us due to a failing health service and for this I am angry, hurt and lacking confidence in Mary Harney's effort of reform.

The following day I brought her to Cork University Hospital and again she was in a waiting room from 9am until she was given a bed in what I could call appalling conditions, 11 hours later. This ward was a Rapid Transit Ward, and although these staff were outstanding, patients were subjected to a distinct smell of urine and I believe unhealthy conditions in general. It was three days before she was transferred to a proper ward.

I now ask you to act on this before more lives are lost and more families suffer. Dr O'Reilly can only do so much so I now offer a view as a victim to support his plea for help. I also would like to make the point that instead of distastefully looking for votes by highlighting the need for child maintenance support, perhaps the Government would actively help cancer sufferers to have the required care that they deserve. These people are dying and the Government don't seem to care.

Rosie Murphy, address with the editor.

Circa €25 million has been invested over the past three years on improving cancer services in the southern area.

I have the utmost confidence in the oncology services provided to the people of Cork and Kerry.

General Manager of Cork University Hospital (CUH) Group, Tony McNamara.

I am writing to you as the remaining consultant medical oncologist in the area formerly known as the Southern Health Board to express my concerns regarding the quality and safety of cancer care in our region.

Letter sent by Medical Oncologist Seamus O'Reilly to Department of Health and HSE at the end of October.

My mother lay in bed at home crying with pain and Dr O'Reilly could offer us no help as the hospital are short of beds and staff.

Rosie Murphy, whose terminally ill mother is a patient of Dr O'Reilly's.