Women against move of breast cancer services to meet HSE chief

PROTESTERS against the proposed move of all breast cancer services for Cork and Kerry to one site in Cork city have demanded a meeting with cancer chief Professor Tom Keane in a bid to highlight their concerns.

A group of women campaigning against the transfer of services to Cork University Hospital (CUH) presented a petition to Prof Keane as he visited South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) yesterday. During a brief discussion at the Breastcheck building, the women secured an agreement from the cancer policy boss for a meeting in the new year.

However, a date was not forthcoming and Prof Keane, head of the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) cancer control programme, did not engage in debate about the transfer itself.

According to Labour Party city councillor, Catherine Clancy, one of the organisers of yesterday’s protest, all of the women are “very upset” about the proposed move of breast cancer services away from SIVUH.

“They’re the people who use the service and have full confidence in the service and the staff at South Infirmary,” she said.

The HSE’s plan to centralise the services is based on a desire to create a “centre of excellence” at CUH.

However, those against the move — originally scheduled to take place next March — say that the greater level of expertise lies at SIVUH.

“A centre of excellence comes about not by putting a tag on the door, but through being earned. It has been earned over the years on the site of the South Infirmary, who have far more diagnosed cases every year than on the CUH site,” said Ms Clancy.

SIVUH patient, Sheila Coleman, who was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago yesterday, said she and others familiar with the hospital were “disillusioned” and “devastated” by the HSE’s plan.

“The South Infirmary is our crutch and it’s what we depend on and rely on and it’s where we’re getting an excellent service,” she said. “There’s no waiting and nobody has ever been turned away from the South Infirmary. They have beautiful treatment rooms and the back-up service is brilliant.”

Ms Coleman, who lost her sister to breast cancer in 1994 — 12 years before being diagnosed herself — said it was “a pure waste” to transfer the facilities from SIVUH to CUH.

“Why fix something when it’s not broken? I can’t understand how they’re making a centre of excellence at CUH, when there’s no comparison between the two sites at the moment,” she said, adding that the public needed to be aware of the scale of the move.

“It’s terrible and I don’t know if the women of Cork realise it, or the women of Munster realise it,” she said.