The construction of a new regional hospital in the northeast, as currently planned, may need to be reconsidered if the hospital is not allowed to provide a full range of cancer services, a senior surgeon has claimed.
Prof Peter Gillen, associate professor of surgery at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, has told the HSE that it would be inconceivable for the new hospital not to provide cancer care, including surgery.
The construction of a new regional hospital in the northeast was recommended in a report published by the HSE in 2006 following a review of acute hospital services in the region by Teamwork consultants.
Discussions are now taking place on where the new hospital should be located.
It was envisaged the hospital would provide a full range of acute services in the northeast. However, under the new national cancer control plan now being implemented by the HSE, only eight hospitals are to provide a full range of cancer services. None of these is in the northeast.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act to Louth Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd show Prof Gillen has raised serious concerns about this plan with the HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm.
He said if cancer surgery was centralised into the eight centres, this "may require us to reconsider the new regional hospital".
He also noted if the new hospital did not provide cancer surgery it may have difficulty attracting staff, as cancer surgery makes up "a significant proportion of overall surgery in a typical regional hospital". He pointed out cancer surgery was provided outside the centres of excellence for cancer care in British Columbia, Canada, on which the new Irish model of cancer care delivery will be based.
Mr O'Dowd said yesterday if the new hospital in the northeast did not provide cancer services, it would not be viable. He called on the new director of cancer control, Prof Tom Keane, to intervene and clarify the situation.
The HSE said it is currently examining how to achieve the best fit between its programme to transform care in the northeast and the national cancer control programme. "This examination is intended to ensure that there is no delay or impediment to the establishment of a new regional acute general hospital," it said.
Meanwhile, other documents released show serious concerns have been expressed by staff in the Lourdes hospital for the past number of months about the staffing of cancer services. A senior nurse wrote to management saying that because of short staffing, the unit was "failing to meet" the needs of some young patients with advanced cancer.
In another letter Prof Des Carney, consultant medical oncologist, told management the shortage of nursing staff in the oncology unit "poses serious clinical risk issues".
He said that as a consequence he would have to limit the administration of chemotherapy to four days a week, which could lead to delays in treatment for some patients.