‘Medical apartheid’ in cancer treatment

PUBLIC patients are still being “short-changed” when it comes to accessing cancer care in Waterford.

Sufferers who do not have private health insurance have to travel to Dublin for specialist treatment — although there is a privately run cancer centre in Waterford.

The chairman of the HSE’s Regional Health Forum South said he was “very disturbed” to learn that patients had to travel to Dublin for state-of-the-art diagnostic scanning.

Councillor Hilary Quinlan said the treatment is available to private medical insurance patients at UPMC Whitfield Cancer Centre in Waterford.

The Fine Gael member of Waterford City Council said: “While I remain committed to seeing the full range of cancer services provided at a single centre of excellence in Waterford Regional Hospital, the agreement in February 2007 between the HSE and UPMC Whitfield Cancer Centre at least spelt the end of the terribly unfair situation where public patients requiring radiotherapy had to travel for their treatment, while those with health insurance were treated nearer home at Whitfield.

“However, I now understand that there is still very real inequity at work in that PET/CT — which is the most advanced imaging technology available — is in use at Whitfield for private patients who have or may have cancer.

“But the HSE is not funding public patients to access this very precise scanning that assists with detecting the spread of cancer and how treatment is being responded to. Instead, patients without insurance who are recommended for this advanced type of scan are being transported to Dublin for PET/CT.”

He added: “The phrase ‘medical apartheid’ was used to describe the situation when public patients could not access radiotherapy in the southeast.

“It seems that a form of this institutionalised unfairness is continuing at present. My understanding is that PET/CT combines two forms of scan to pinpoint more accurately the location of abnormal cell activity and to measure the extent of that activity.

It also reduces the need for many other invasive, expensive and time-consuming tests.

“It is absolutely imperative that all patients who require such scanning have access to it at the nearest available location — this can’t be decided by the lottery of whether they do or don’t have medical insurance. I now intend to raise this matter with senior HSE officials at the next meeting of the Regional Health Forum, South and am confident that I will have the support of my colleagues.

“We are fortunate to have a world leader in cancer care like UPMC Cancer Centres providing services in the southeast and it baffles me why the HSE apparently cannot reach an agreement allowing public patients access PET/CT at Whitfield — at least until such a time as it is available at Waterford Regional Hospital.”