Cancer care - State must tackle this disease now

Despite the fact that the incidence of cancer is expected to practically double in the country over the next 14 years, a national strategy on the disease — the second — launched last year remains in limbo.

The strategy was made the responsibility of the Health Service Executive (HSE) which was to devise an action plan over eight weeks to implement it, when it was launched by Health Minister Mary Harney.

When it was launched, the strategy was based on a document drawn up by the National Cancer Forum. It recommended that in future cancer care should be catered for at eight centres around the country on a regional basis, each serving a population of about one million people.