Patients angry at plan for €50m jet

THE €50m earmarked for the new government jet would keep 250 acute hospital beds open for a year, the Irish Patients Association said last night.

The money would buy three radiotherapy units for cancer treatment and help save one in three lives every year, according to Cancer Care Alliance.

The Irish Patients Association (IPA) said it was outraged that the Taoiseach is still proceeding with plans to buy a new jet while the 250 hospital beds are set to close in Dublin.

“These acute hospital beds could be kept open for the rest of the year if the Taoiseach would take scheduled flights instead and give the money to the Dublin hospitals,” IPA chairman Stephen McMahon said. Instead the closure of these beds means that 36,000 patients have no hope of getting treatment for the rest of the year.

There is also a whole question mark over whether or not we need a new Government jet, since Department of Defence statistics show that the present one was available for use on 134 of the 135 occasions when it was sought last year, Mr McMahon said. The Government Gulfstream jet has an average life span of 40 years, but has only done 10,000 miles, the equivalent of what most Aer Lingus jets do in two years.

The Cancer Care Alliance is angry, because the same money could buy three radiotherapy units for cancer treatment. Jane Bailey who spearheaded the campaign for a radiotherapy unit in the South-East said it is a disgrace that elderly people are forced to travel hundreds of miles for radiotherapy treatment in Dublin or Cork because the Government will not spend €16.5m on a radiotherapy unit.