Treatment should not be a lottery

The assertion by Transport Minister Martin Cullen that there is no difference between public and private radiotherapy for the South-East indicates his tenuous grasp on reality.

There is a difference, and too often it can be the difference between life and death something which the minister appears to overlook in espousing the concept of private investment in healthcare.

Something else he conveniently overlooks is the fact that prior to the last general election, he promised that the South-East would get a public radiotherapy unit, a pledge that undoubtedly secured him votes. When Mr Cullen lays the foundation stone for a

private clinic later this week in Waterford, it will emphasise to people in the region that radiotherapy will be available but largely only to those who can afford it.

Mr Cullen is correct to point to the fact that the Finance Act 2001 legislated for private investment in the health service, but only 20% of such services must be provided to the public.

That leaves 80% of public patients depending on an inadequate public health service, and no matter how advanced the facilities are in the new clinic, the majority of those in the South-East who need them will not be able to access them.

In reality, radiotherapy in that region is non-existent. That is the simple truth, and no matter how much Mr Cullen argues that private clinics can bridge such a huge gap, they cannot, and will not supply, the service which people have demanded and one which he promised.

Almost 12 months ago, 10,000 people held a rally in Waterford to campaign for radiotherapy services in the South-East, demanding the same cancer treatment be available in the region as is available in Cork, Galway and Dublin.

But nothing has changed. Cancer patients still have to travel the long distance to one of those centres for vital treatment, with all the trauma that involves, often with devastating effects. Few families in this country are untouched by cancer and its effects.

Last year, the Oireachtas committee on health heard criticism of the Hollywood Report, which had recommended that specialised radiotherapy be centralised in Cork, Galway and Dublin.

There was a good reason for this criticism.

One does not need to be a medical professional to understand that the longer the distance a patient has to travel from their home for treatment, the greater the risks to their already precarious health.

Mr Cullen has pleaded that the entire health bill cannot be funded by the taxpayer. Yet taxpayers had to foot the bill for the scandalous waste of 50 million for which he was responsible by stubbornly proceeding with the electronic voting project, despite advice to the contrary. That money, or part of it, would have been better spent on providing the badly needed radiotherapy treatment facilities in the South-East.

Despite his petulant reaction to campaigners having the temerity to protest outside the Dáil on the issue, they had every right to do so.