Cancer treatment - Urgent need for radiation centres

THE Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children was told categorically yesterday that action for cancer patients, by way of improved services, is urgently needed.

Anybody familiar with the treatment of cancer patients in this country, especially public patients, will only too readily identify with the sentiments of Dr Ian Fraser, a consultant in radiation oncology.

He is all too familiar with the deficiencies in the treatment of cancer, having been appointed to care for patients attending the Mater hospital and St Luke's hospital, in Dublin.

He also sees patients in the South-Eastern Health Board and runs clinics in Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny.

Consequently, in calling for radiation facilities in Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway and the north-west, Dr. Fraser is well-qualified to speak on the need for providing such facilities in regional areas as well as in the major cities.

According to the Expert Group on Radiation Oncology Services the provision of four radiation treatment centres in Galway, Cork and two in Dublin is the preferred solution.

It is unlikely that the many patients who don't live in, or near, to one of the proposed centres and who will still have to travel considerable distances, would concur with the conclusion.

As committee chairman Batt O'Keeffe said, the country has a third rate radiation oncology service and we have to move on from that.