Patients dying over shortages, says consultant

CANCER sufferers are dying needlessly because of a shortage in life-saving radiotherapy services, it has emerged.

Cancer consultants say only half of the 11,000 patients a year who need treatment are getting it because of inadequate treatment facilities and staff shortages.

Dr Séamus Ó Cathail, a consultant radiotherapist in Cork University Hospital (CUH), said that while there had been slow progress in recent years, patients would continue to suffer if resources were not pumped into recruiting staff and developing new facilities.