Cancer patients ‘let down’ at TDs’ U-turn in vote

A SLIGO woman, whose cancer was diagnosed by Fianna Fáil TD Dr Jimmy Devins, said she and other patients are “terribly let down” by the junior minister’s support for plans to downgrade cancer services in the north-west.

Dr Devins and his Fianna Fáil colleague in Sligo-North Leitrim, Deputy Eamon Scanlon, had strongly supported a campaign to retain cancer services in Sligo General Hospital.

But when the issue came to a vote in the Dáil last night, both TDs kept in line with their party and voted in favour of a motion that will mean cancer patients in the north-west will have to travel to Galway for treatment.

The Government motion to support the cancer care strategy was comfortably passed. The strategy will see the creation of eight cancer centres of excellence, with the downgrading of services at some regional hospitals.

Almost 100 campaigners, including cancer patients, took part in a protest outside the Dáil ahead of last night’s vote.

One protester, Lily McMorrow, who was diagnosed with cancer of the womb by Dr Devins, said he has turned his back on the people who elected him to the Dáil.

“When he became a junior minister in health we all had great hope in him because of who he was, a doctor, as well as minister for the north-west. And we are let down, terribly let down,” she said.

Ms McMorrrow, who lost her mother and sister to cancer and has two other sisters living with the disease, said last night was Dr Devins’s and Mr Scanlon’s chance to “pay back” the people who put them in the Dáil.

“The people elected them and they forget the ordinary people when it gets to this stage of the house,” she said.

Dr Devins joined 3,000 people in a protest at the end of March and said the cancer services should be retained because of the “geographical isolation” of Sligo.

Last night he voted in favour of the cancer care programme, and told the Dáil it was in the best interest of patients.

Last month, Mr Scanlon told Ocean FM in the north-west that the people of the region had put him in the Dáil, and if the campaign to keep services failed: “I would have to consider my position.”

Last night he also voted in favour of the Government’s plan. “The people of Sligo/Leitrim, myself included, felt very passionately we were well served by the local hospital. So it is with great disappointment that I acknowledge tonight, in front of local campaign groups, that our efforts have not been successful,” he said.