A report on the provision of radiotherapy services for cancer patients across the State is to recommend that the service only be provided at three locations, The Irish Times has learned.
The locations identified for radiotherapy units in the report, which is to be published shortly, are Dublin, Cork and Galway. This will come as a major blow to the people of the south-east in particular, where a massive campaign for radiotherapy services has been ongoing for at least two years. The report's conclusion is also likely to cause outrage in the mid-west where efforts have begun to get a radiotherapy service through public private partnership.
Cancer specialists in both regions have said some women are choosing to have mastectomies rather than face long spells away from home for radiotherapy treatment, currently only available in Dublin and Cork. And both these centres have waiting lists.
Up to half of all patients diagnosed with cancer should get radiotherapy, according to Ms Jane Bailey, a nurse at Waterford Regional Hospital and a member of the South East Cancer Foundation.
Yet a report from the National Cancer Registry earlier this year drew attention to the fact that many people were not getting the treatment. That report found a low rate of radiotherapy treatment for cancer patients in the Western and Mid-Western Health Board areas in particular.
A new radiotherapy unit had been planned for Galway even before experts sat down to discuss where such services should be located in May 2000. The expert group was established by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, to examine where the service should be located. The group is chaired by Prof Donal Hollywood, a consultant at St Luke's Hospital, Dublin. It is his group's report which has now recommended a service for Dublin, Cork and Galway only.
The Galway unit is due for completion in July but is not clear when it will be able to open as no radiation therapy consultants have yet been appointed. It can take up to 18 months for such appointments to be made. The report from the Radiotherapy Service Development Group, which has been expected for months, will say that a minimum critical population and patient throughput is needed to maintain expertise and specialisation and this is why radiotherapy cannot be based at several hospitals.
A study carried out in Britain, the Calman-Hine report of 1995, recommended that a population of a million was necessary to provide the critical mass of patients for a cancer centre, with "a population of two-thirds of a million being the absolute minimum". The south-east has a population of 450,000 but Ms Bailey says this should not prevent it getting a unit. She said a unit had been provided in Cornwall for a similar population.
Last night Ms Bailey called on the Minister to publish the report immediately. She claimed it shouldn't have taken almost three years to decide where services should be located. "We are talking about life-saving treatment," she stressed.
She accused Mr Martin of keeping the report "under cover" and said the absence of radiotherapy in some areas meant cancer patients who could be saved were effectively being "written off". A spokeswoman for the Minister said he hadn't yet received the report. He expected it within weeks.
It is expected the Minister will act on the recommendations of his expert group. However, the issue may cause tension in Government as the PDs in its election manifesto, said they would ensure regional cancer centres were established so that patients did not have to travel hundreds of miles for ongoing radiotherapy.