Cancer patients suffer over hospice probe

TERMINALLY-ILL cancer patients in Galway are being forced to travel to Cork and Dublin for care because a local hospice has refused to take new clients following an alleged drugs mix-up.

The hospice, in Renmore, has not admitted any patients since May 9 when the hospice’s palliative care consultant decided to suspend patient-referrals to the 12-bed unit. Drug administration errors, including four medication mix-ups in one 24-hour period, were behind the consultant’s decision.

The errors included a number of incidents where an intravenous antidote to morphine had to be administered to patients because of a potential threat to their lives.