Dail Report: Cancer cases will increase by 41 per cent by 2015, the Fine Gael spokeswoman on health, Ms Olivia Mitchell, told the Dáil.
"Such a figure should make our blood run cold," she added. "Given that we cannot cope now, how will we be able to deal with such an increase just over 10 years from now?" Ms Mitchell said some of the reasons for the predicted increase were not clear, but some of it would be due to an ageing population and, perhaps, environmental factors.
It seemed, she added, that some of the year-on-year increase in the incidence of cancer could not be explained.
Speaking during a debate on the report on the development of radiation oncology services in Ireland, Ms Mitchell said the shortfall of clinical radiation oncology services in the Republic was of such a magnitude that a major programme was required to rapidly develop treatment services to acceptable standards.
"The Minister should act on this statement and all the other recommendations in the report. He knows how long it takes to build up a body of expertise to provide a service and he should start to build it now. There should be a sense of urgency in this regard."
Earlier, the Minister of State for Health, Mr Brian Lenihan, said the Government was committed to a significant development programme in radiotherapy.
The development of those ser-vices along the lines recommended in the report was the single most important priority in cancer services in the acute spending, he added.
Describing the report as an "authoritative and in-depth analysis of radiation oncology", he said it provided a detailed plan for the future development of radiation oncology services.
"I accept that significant deficit that exists with regard to meeting the radiation oncology needs of cancer patients. The expert group was established to ensure that we plan the current and future development of this element of cancer care in a sustainable and quality assured way." Mr Lenihan added that more than €25 million had been invested in St Luke's Hospital, Dublin, enabling the purchase of significant additional equipment, including six new linear accelerators.
The Labour spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, accused the Government of having a "closed Dublin mindset" when it came to decentralising cancer services to where people were clamouring to have them.
"Why cannot the Minister for Health decentralise radiation therapy services? If patients have to travel long distances - which I would question - maybe people in Dublin should have to do the travelling for a change."
Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said the report had gone for the centralised option, in line with the Hanly report and with the whole thrust of current Government health delivery policy. "I accept that there are many considerations specific to radiation oncology delivery and, of course, such services cannot be provided in every hospital. But the recommended configuration leaves out huge swathes of the country, with seriously ill cancer patients having to travel long distances for essential and often painful and distressing treatment."
He added that the Cancer Care Alliance had identified massive shortcomings in the report and had called for radiotherapy provision in other centres in addition to Dublin, Cork and Galway.
Mr John Gormley (Green Party, Dublin South East) said that while his party acknowledged the need for a major national programme to develop radiotherapy services, it did not believe that the further centralisation of those services would increase patient access to radiotherapy for those in areas without the facilities.
"The backbone of national services at present is St Luke's Hospital. The plan to develop two new radiotherapy facilities in Dublin, with a site on the southside to service much of the south-east, is simply the wrong prescription. Access to Dublin for people living in the country is extremely difficult and continues to worsen, with an average travelling time of between three-and-a-half hours one way. "Unfortunately, a fact that appears to have been overlooked in the recommendations of this report is that cancer patients are ill.
"Travelling takes a significant toll on them and it is extremely dangerous for an ill person to drive a car that distance. Any sane person would accept that."
