A leading cancer specialist has warned that very ill children are being prevented from having tumours thoroughly investigated because Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin does not have an MRI scanner.
Dr Fin Breathnach said all patients in the hospital requiring MRI scans had to be sent by ambulance or taxi to other hospitals where MRI facilities were available. But very ill children who were not well enough to travel were missing out, he said.
MRIs - magnetic resonance imaging - produce high-tech images of organs within the body, identifying changes such as the presence of tumours. Dr Breathnach said he was disturbed to learn late last week that while the Department of Health had given a commitment to fund the installation of the hospital's first MRI scanner, the Department of Finance had given no commitment to cover its operating costs. He had been told, he said, that capital works would only be funded if they did not have "revenue implications" in the current difficult financial climate.
If this happened, he would have to review whether he could look after all cancer patients now turning up at the hospital. "I'll have to review my situation in relation to the patients that I serve unless I can be assured these facilities will be provided at the earliest possible moment," he said. "There may be patients that I might feel, on mature reflection, might best be looked after elsewhere, perhaps abroad. One has to question the level of care that we can offer these children when such investigations are not available to the sickest of them," he added.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said it was committed to providing an MRI facility at Crumlin hospital. She said approval had been granted for the scanner at a cost of €5 million.