Concern over breast cancer services ‘well-founded’

A GROUP of women who raised concerns about issues surrounding the centralisation of breast disease services at Cork University Hospital (CUH) a full year before the same problems were noted in a formal report is to meet this evening.

The collection of Cork women, including Labour TD Kathleen Lynch and local councillor Catherine Clancy, are due to discuss why the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) report indicates their concerns were not addressed.

Before the amalgamation of services from the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) and Kerry General at CUH last December, questions had been asked over how the facility would cope with increased demand.

These concerns centred around potential capacity problems; patient treatment access; bed space at the hospital; and “bi-location” issues for medics with responsibilities at CUH and other facilities.

While the HSE dismissed the concerns at the time, the detailed 98-page HIQA report released last month highlighted the same concerns and concluded they were potentially putting patient safety at risk.

“Before the re-configuration of breast cancer services, we put on the record our serious misgivings about how it would impact on the delivery of cancer services.

“Unfortunately, as we see in this HIQA report, our concerns were well-founded,” Ms Lynch said before the meeting.

“The service provided at the unit is first rate, but there are serious and growing problems for patients getting access to treatment – problems that have come about since the centralisation of services last year.”