Opposition expresses horror at crisis in cancer care

OPPOSITION parties have called for the Tánaiste to personally respond to a letter from a hospital consultant in the south which they said “shows a health system out of control”.

Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party have all described the letter’s contents, published in yesterday’s Irish Examiner, as “unacceptable” and expressed horror at the Department of Health’s lack of investment in southern cancer services.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said that they “fully supported” hospital consultant Dr Séamus O’Reilly, and confirmed that large numbers of oncology nurses were choosing to leave the south as they didn’t feel there was any local management support for their work.