Cancer centre to treat cross-border patients

Cancer patients in Co Donegal are to have access to radiotherapy services in the North from next month, it was confirmed today.

Northern Ireland Office Health Minister Paul Goggins announced the start of a new service to provide radiotherapy for Donegal patients at the Belfast Cancer Centre.

The new arrangements were announced following the British Irish Intergovernmental Council meeting in Dublin and came about as a result of a cross-border project looking into the feasibility of such a service.

From the start of November, patients from Donegal will be able to access radiotherapy treatment at the Cancer Centre in Belfast City Hospital, making use of spare capacity within the existing service.

It is believed approximately 50 patients from Donegal will have their treatment delivered in Belfast over the course of the next year.

The Department of Health in Northern Ireland insisted the opening up of this new service for patients in Co Donegal would not impact in any way on the radiotherapy services available to patients in the North.

The Republic of Ireland’s authorities will also be meeting the full costs involved, including a significant contribution to fixed overheads.

Mr Goggins said: “These arrangements represent the fruition of a great deal of hard work by clinicians and officials on both sides of the border and is a fine example of what can be achieved in terms of improving services for the public when we work together on an all-island basis.

“My first priority remains to ensure these high quality services are available to the Northern Ireland population, but we should exploit opportunities to use existing spare capacity to provide radiotherapy services to some patients in Donegal without affecting the services available to local patients.”

The provision of radiotherapy in Belfast to patients from Co Donegal was agreed to in principle in November 2005 by BIO Health Minister Shaun Woodward following a north-south partnership meeting with the Republic’s minister Mary Harney.

The new service will come into effect from November 1 with the referral of the first patients from Donegal to Belfast Cancer Centre expected in the following week.