The Oireachtas Committee on Health yesterday heard of significant disagreements between medical consultants when it considered the Hollywood report on the development of radiotherapy services.
The chairman of the expert group which produced the report, Dr Donal Hollywood, professor of clinical oncology at Trinity College Dublin and consultant radiation oncologist at St Luke's Hospital, said the report represented "a critical opportunity to get it right so that we no longer would have the weakest radiation oncology service in the EU".
Published last October, the Hollywood report advocated the development of a spinal system of radiotherapy services in Galway, Cork and two centres in Dublin.
Its recommendations have been resisted by patients and doctors in the mid-west and south-west in particular. They want to see a hub-and-spoke model of care, with smaller radiotherapy units in Limerick, Waterford and the north-west.
Mr Gordon Watson, a consultant general surgeon at Waterford Regional Hospital and regional cancer co-ordinator in the South Eastern Health Board, said he could not support the majority view of the expert group of which he was a member. He told the committee that, if local concerns were not listened to, "the people themselves will take action to combat injustice".
Dr Maccon Keane, consultant medical oncologist at University College Hospital Galway, told deputies and senators he supported the conclusions of the expert group.
"There are three significant hazards which must be avoided if the radiation oncology plan is to happen," he said.
"We must fund the development in its entirety, ensure equity of access for all patients and avoid the development of radiation services on a sporadic and ad-hoc basis".
After hearing the reservations of other consultants in attendance, the chairman of the committee, Mr Batt O'Keeffe TD, asked Dr Hollywood to clarify the scientific validity of the data upon which the expert group made its recommendations. Dr Hollywood said he wished to categorically reject any suggestion that their research was non-scientific.
"Our report has been presented at three international meetings where it was peer-reviewed and it is awaiting publication in the Lancet," he said.
The committee heard that the report's findings have been supported by a number of international cancer experts. In a letter to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, Dr Michael Baumann of the Carl Gustav Clinic in Dresden, Germany, said he was convinced "cancer services in Ireland will profit enormously from the report's recommendations".