Plea to extend cancer care review

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has been urged to extend a review of breast cancer services in the West and North West to all types of the disease due to “serious concerns” of chronic cutbacks putting patients at risk.

The Irish Cancer Society issued the call after consultant urologist Dr Kevin Moran quit his general surgeon post at Letterkenny General Hospital after 24 years, as he no longer believes services can meet demand.

Dr Moran said he decided to take the controversial stand as he “did not have the resources to take care of my patients any more”.

Citing a lack of access to beds, operating theatres and a long-term system-wide inability to “recruit and retain the junior staff and support staff” he needed, he said there was no point in continuing to cover up cracks.

Similar problems are hampering hospitals across the country, he indicated, after seven years of cutbacks which saw the overall budget slump by 23% at a time when demand on resources had never been higher.

In response, the HSE said it had put in place a locum surgeon from February 23 to April 16 and another for a year to immediately fill the staffing hole at the Donegal hospital.

The HSE said it hopes the move will help support the 425 men with prostate cancer and 160 men and women with bladder cancer who still need to be treated in the area, where there is a two-year wait for an appointment.

However, a spokesperson for the Irish Cancer Society said the measure fell far short of what was required, insisting a detailed review of exactly what was going wrong with cancer services in the region was required.

“Given our ageing population, more and more people are getting cancer and this requires us to have appropriate resources in all of cancer centres, including Letterkenny.

“The Minister for Health has committed to a review of the delivery of integrated breast services across the Saolta Hospital Group [which runs Letterkenny General] and we would ask that this be extended to include all cancer services, especially prostate cancer,” the spokesperson said.

While cancer services are of a high quality once the people who need help are able to access them, like other sections of the health service there are persistent waiting list delays and demand pressures nationwide.

Last month, it emerged a number of hospitals were chastised by Mr Varadkar for turning away patients from outside alleged catchment areas because of the local pressure on services.

They included the Mercy University Hospital in Cork City, where a cancer doctor explained to officials: “I [the consultant] am one of four urologists providing a service to this region for approximately 865,000 patients. You are aware of the cutbacks in the HSE over the last number of years.”