Cancer care plan - Report does not inspire confidence

FURTHER proof, if it were needed, of the lack of joined-up planning in the health service is highlighted in a scathingly critical internal report of the Government’s €400 million cancer blueprint.

Though carried out by the Health Service Executive, both the HSE and Health Minister Mary Harney have moved swiftly to dash cold water on the significance of the leaked document aired yesterday on NewsTalk 106-108fm.

The official line is that, since the report was finalised last July and has since been overtaken by events, it is largely historical. But the facts show that it was only presented to the HSE board on December 7.

By any standard, its contents reflect stinging criticism of the way the cancer plan was approached. The first major bone of contention concerns Ms Harney’s failure to involve the HSE before the plan to combat cancer treatment was launched in a blaze of publicity. The fact the country’s coordinating health body was not involved defies credulity.

Among other setbacks, the report highlights the health sector’s lack of precedent in the public-private partnership approach favoured by Government, central to the new proposed cancer network.

Most damning of all, perhaps, is the conclusion that the department’s deadlines are “not achievable”.

Dismissing both the 2008 interim target and the 2011 overall deadline, it estimates that 2013 and 2014 would be more realistic.

Foreshadowing the difficulties which currently plague the proposal to site the new national children’s hospital at the Mater Hospital in the centre of Dublin, it warns of possible “contention” over the selection of sites for cancer treatment.

Reviewing staffing levels across the key professions engaged in treating cancer, it estimates that 48 new radiation oncologists will be needed by 2020 with five new consultants being hired this year at a cost of €2.5 million.

The report predicts difficulties in recruiting additional physicists due to a world-wide shortage. It also estimates that Ireland has 118 radiation therapists but says it should have between 305 and 383 on current population levels.

Without doubt, the cancer report will cause further political embarrassment for the minister, who is already on the firing line in the furore over the Mater site.

It is an understandably emotional debate as people discuss the difficulties involved in getting sick children through Dublin’s never ending traffic snarl. To its shame, the Government’s cynical response has been to tell parents they can take their sick children to hospital on the Luas.

Adding to the minister’s discomfort, two international experts have denied they supported or even visited the Mater site. The controversial location was selected by a civil service task force which, incredibly, did not include a paediatrician.

Undeniably, there is cause for disquiet since children being brought to the Mater will face the risk of being delayed in traffic jams, with all that implies for sick toddlers and their parents.

Against this angry backdrop, it is encouraging that the cancer report emphasises that the national control programme must be implemented by the HSE as an integrated business unit with financial transparency and consistent quality.

That said, however, it is worrying that its own review of the Government’s national cancer plan foresees years of delay, cost uncertainties and describes the timeline as unachievable.

Given the horrendous trauma which cancer victims up and down the country have suffered because of the inadequacy of regional facilities, undertaking long and arduous journeys for radiation treatment, the urgency of having an effective and well-planned programme cannot be overemphasised. But the mixed messages coming from the confidential report do not inspire confidence.