Red tape ‘not hindering’ cancer aid

BUREAUCRATIC red tape is not getting in the way of public patients using modern cancer-fighting machinery in a private hospital in Waterford, the Health Service Executive (HSE) insisted yesterday.

The recently opened Whitfield Cancer Centre in Waterford cannot treat a public patient with radiotherapy until it has a signed service agreement with the HSE.

The centre has the only liner accelerator (a machine that creates high-energy radiation to treat cancers) in the south-east.