A consultant surgeon based in Sligo General Hospital has called on Minister for Health Mary Harney to retain existing cancer services at the facility so patients in the northwest can continue to access potentially life-saving treatment close to home.
Tim O'Hanrahan yesterday sent a letter to Ms Harney outlining his concerns at a plan to downgrade cancer services at the hospital, which would see patients from the region travelling to Galway to access diagnostic and surgical cancer services currently available in Sligo.
"In the case of breast care, a multi-disciplinary team working in the context of a triple-assessment approach produces the best results for patients," the letter said.
"Such a system has been in place in Sligo for the past six years and serves the patient well. Patients in the north west would face considerable hardship if they had to travel to Galway."
The letter from Mr Hanrahan, a specialist in breast cancer, was submitted to the Minister during a protest outside Leinster House yesterday.
Up to 250 protesters from Sligo, Donegal and Leitrim gathered outside the Dáil to call on the Minister to retain existing cancer services, including breast cancer services, at Sligo General Hospital. Under the National Cancer Control Programme, there are plans to establish eight centres of excellence for cancer care by the end of 2009, but Sligo is not one of them.
Sligo county councillor and cancer survivor Margaret Gormley was one of a number of public representatives, including Labour leader Éamon Gilmore, Fine Gael spokesman on health Dr James Reilly and MEP Marian Harkin, who attended the protest.
"What a cancer patient doesn't want is long journeys and having to waiting for a long time for treatment," Ms Gormley said. "What they want is to get the job done as quickly as possible.
"In Sligo we have an excellent team doing an excellent job. Why in God's name is the Government and [ HSE chief executive] Professor [ Brendan] Drumm trying to take away the excellent service we have in Sligo? This is an issue for each and everyone of us; man, woman and child."
Minister of State for Health Dr Jimmy Devins, who was greeted by the crowd with heckles and boos, said the recently appointed director of the national cancer control programme, Prof Tom Keane, had accepted his invitation to visit Sligo General Hospital to look at the cancer facilities there.
Mr Devins said he was "totally committed" to maintaining the existing level of services at the hospital.
Lilly McMorrow from Sligo said: "For people who suffer with cancer, every hour of every day is so precious. We do not want to be taken away from our families. We want to maintain our services in the northwest and we want a ninth centre of excellence. "
Anne McGowan from Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, said if patients from the region were forced to join waiting lists in University College Hospital Galway, "it means the list goes on longer and we die."
Ms McMorrow and Ms McGowan have both been treated for cancer at Sligo General Hospital.