Pressure is mounting on the Government to change its plans to provide radiotherapy only in Dublin, Cork and Galway after the Opposition, in a rare show of unity, yesterday published its own plan for the development of a service which would see radiotherapy also provided in the south-east, mid-west and north-west at no extra cost.
Their alternative plan, they say, is to ensure equity of access to radiotherapy for patients across the State. At present they say patients from these regions are experiencing delays in accessing treatment and some are opting to have radical surgery such as mastectomies rather than travelling long distances to avail of radiotherapy treatment.
Mr Jerry Cowley, the Independent Mayo TD and GP, outlined the Opposition's alternative plan at a press conference in Dublin. It advocates:
Shutting down of St Luke's Hospital, Dublin;
Downsizing the size of radiotherapy units planned for Dublin;
Establishing radiotherapy units in and appointing radiation oncologists to Waterford, Limerick and Letterkenny.
The Government's plan is based on an expert report published last year, referred to as the Hollywood report. It said the three modalities of cancer treatment - surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy - should be provided at one site by a multidisciplinary team for best outcomes. It stopped short of saying St Luke's, which does not provide the three modalities of care, should be closed.
Mr Cowley said that while 60 per cent of cancer patients require radiation therapy, only 35 per cent were getting it at present. This had an impact on survival rates. "For head and neck cancer patients, for every week of delay in radiotherapy treatment, there is a 1 per cent decrease in survival. Commonly there is two months delay, with an 8 per cent decrease in survival, although delays of three months have been recorded by this group."
Dr Cowley said the additional services would cost nothing extra. This was because the State would save on the cost of transporting patients to existing treatment centres and because the cost of the unit for the mid-west had already been raised by the Mid West Hospital Development Trust. It has €6.4 million available to it to provide a unit at Limerick Regional Hospital and it is prepared to run the unit for free for up to five years. Representatives of the group met the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, last evening to try and get the go-ahead for their plans.
Responding to the alternative plan, Mr Martin said: "The Government has agreed that the first phase of this programme should be the development of a clinical network of large centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway."