Cancer care - Changes to system most welcome

Yesterday Health Minister Mary Harney announced the location of the eight specialist cancer treatment centres, which promise to provide the most up-to-date treatment for cancer patients.

Population, not geography, was the main factor in the selection of those locations. Each of the eight venues is designed to serve about 500,000 people.

Four broad regions were selected. The south is to be covered by centres in Cork and Waterford; the west by centres in Limerick and Galway, while the midlands and part of Dublin are to be served by two locations in Dublin, and the north-east and the remainder of Dublin by two other centres in the capital. As Donegal is particularly isolated within a new set-up, a special outreach centre is being provided in Letterkenny.

Smaller hospitals are going to end their cancer care. Inevitably some people will be disappointed in that they may have to travel further, but they should have the bonus of knowing that they will be getting the best treatment.

There is, however, a certain vagueness in the plans, which could lead to problems. The services in the smaller hospitals that have not been designated as specialist treatment centres are due to close within 90 days, but the transfer of the services will take place over the next two years.

There would seem to be a contradiction in this, and nobody should ever underestimate the ability of bureaucrats to bungle, especially when it will involve the redeployment of personnel.

The newly designated centres are in line with the national cancer control strategy announced last year. They have been welcomed by a wide range of people, most involved in the fight against the disease.

The Irish Cancer Society has warmly welcomed the initiative as a long overdue means of improving the prognosis for cancer patients throughout the country. Unfortunately, international statistics indicate that Ireland has not been doing well in relation to cancer care.

We are at the lower end of the European average when it comes to survival and mortality rates for the disease.

International research indicates that the prognosis for cancer patients improves by 20% at designated treatment centres of excellence, where there are multidisciplinary teams and continuing research. The centres will have education and research facilities with access to clinical trials and visiting professors to provide information on the most up-to-date treatment techniques.

Good multidisciplinary care, where the work of one expert is checked by other experts, will provide patients with a better chance of beating their cancer. The designated centres will have the expertise to deal with the most prevalent forms of the disease, affecting the bowel, breast, lung, and prostate.

We have been suffering because of the failure to organise properly, so these changes should be most welcome, especially among those who have the daily heartache of watching patients die, when they should have had a better chance of living.

Cancer care is expensive, because the disease is complex and constantly changing. Treatment techniques must also change in the light of continuing research. The new strategy being implemented is not designed to rationalise cancer services nor save money, but to ensure the most effective treatment, which should always be the paramount consideration.