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.

It is capable of treating up to 35 patients a day, yet local patients with cancer are having to travel up to 100 miles to receive treatment that lasts just minutes.

The centre is a joint venture between Irish healthcare consortium Eurocare International and UPMC Cancer Centres, one of the largest networks of cancer physicians and healthcare specialists in the United States.

It works with the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) which is ranked among the top cancer institutes in the US.

A spokesperson for the HSE said that UPMC had been asked to confirm that they were meeting all the national guidelines on cancer treatment and were engaged in the process.

She pointed out that the guidelines were drawn up by a national radiation oncology co-ordination group established about two years ago to oversee the development of radiotherapy services.

The spokesperson insisted that the guidelines were drawn up to ensure that the treatment that patients got was the best and safest available.

“There is no question of bureaucratic red tape getting in the way of a vital service for patients,” she insisted.

“The centre has been asked to meet all the guidelines that have been set nationally and they are currently engaged in that process,” she said.

The spokesperson also pointed out that the contracting of any facility to provide radiotherapy to public patients would depend on compliance with the national guidelines and with funding availability.

Minister for Transport and Waterford TD, Martin Cullen, said he was deeply concerned about the situation and that it appeared that the HSE was more concerned about the process than it was about patients.