Rename centres of excellence to allay fears, urge doctors

DOCTORS want cancer “centres of excellence” rebranded as “specialist centres” to allay patient fears that treatment anywhere other than the so-called centres of excellence may be substandard.

And in a boost to the Government’s National Cancer Strategy, doctors yesterday voted down a motion proposing the strategy be rejected because it failed to locate any such centre in the northwest, northeast or midlands.

In the most heated debate of the day, GP trainee Dr Ruairi Hanley questioned why, when an expert report published in 2000 recommended 13 centres of excellence to treat cancer, that number had now been reduced to eight.