Reorganisation: A group campaigning for better cancer services in Co Donegal is to have its first meeting with Minister for Health Mary Harney tomorrow.
It will be seeking immediate reassurances that services in Letterkenny will not be downgraded even further in a planned State-wide reorganisation of cancer services.
The delegation from Donegal Action for Cancer Care (DACC) will include the regional director of cancer services in the northwest, Dr Kevin Moran, consultant radiation oncologist at St Luke's Hospital, Dr Ian Frazer, and four committee members who have been cancer patients.
Chairwoman Noelle Duddy said that while the group's aim was to get a satellite radiotherapy clinic in Donegal so cancer patients would not be required to spend six weeks in Dublin away from their families, they were also concerned about securing existing services.
"We will be seeking the immediate appointment of a permanent consultant breast surgeon in Letterkenny - we now only have a temporary one and that is not satisfactory," she said.
Ms Duddy, who recently underwent radiotherapy treatment, has highlighted how some Donegal women are being forced to choose to have a breast removed because they cannot leave their families to go to Dublin for radiotherapy.
Ms Duddy said it was now five years since the O'Higgins report into the reorganisation of cancer services was published and the group believed that at this stage Ms Harney should be able to tell them what her plans were for cancer services in Donegal.
Dr Moran and Dr Frazer have argued that in regions with geographically dispersed populations it is preferable to provide satellite radiotherapy clinics than to force patients to travel long distances for treatment.
Dr Moran has argued for a breast cancer service to be retained in Letterkenny, linked to a regional centre in Sligo and has pointed out that this model has worked very successfully in other countries.
The O'Higgins report did not advocate such an approach and suggested that Donegal patients could instead avail of services across the Border.
Ms Duddy said she hoped Ms Harney would also brief them on her recent discussions with Northern health minister Shaun Woodward on developing cross-Border services. However, she said she did not believe this was a solution for cancer patients in Donegal.
She said that even if Belfast could provide the services, the journeys involved of more than 100 miles made it unacceptable.
The delegation will also raise with Ms Harney the recent announcement of a planned private clinic providing radiotherapy to be opened at Letterkenny by a group including the former chief executive of the North Western Health Board, Pat Harvey.
Ms Duddy said the group was concerned about how the clinic would impact on services at Letterkenny General Hospital and it was their view that radiotherapy should be provided at the general hospital for all patients, both public and private.
The group will present to Ms Harney more than 100 personal accounts written by Donegal cancer patients of their experiences. The meeting, which was first requested by the group three months ago, will take place in Leinster House tomorrow. The campaign group was started in April and now has local committees in all areas of the county.