Consultants angry over pace of cancer service reform

PLANS to reconfigure cancer services under the direction of cancer ‘tzar’ Prof Tom Keane have angered a number of hospital consultants, among them cancer specialists.

A series of documents obtained by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act outline the growing concern among some consultants with the pace of reform and with existing cancer services.

In one letter, Prof Stephen Lane, consultant respiratory physician and allergist at Tallaght Hospital, wrote to Dr Philip Crowley, deputy chief medical officer at the Department of Health, warning there were “grave concerns” at Tallaght Hospital with proposals to transfer cancer services to St James’s Hospital.