Treating cancer patients in A&E ‘disgrace’

A patient with metastatic cancer told a doctor he would rather “drown myself in the river” than return for treatment to a cancer centre of excellence where he would face emergency department delays and the likelihood of days on a trolley.

Dr Greg Kelly, a GP from Roscommon, said his patient had developed complications as a result of chemotherapy and had to be referred back to University Hospital Galway (UHG) for intravenous treatment.

“But he had such a bad experience of the hospital when he was referred back on a previous occasion that he said, ‘I would prefer to drown myself in the river than go back’,” said Dr Kelly.