CAMPAIGNERS HAVE called for full standards of cancer care to be applied to the State’s “centres of excellence” after the Health Information and Quality Authority report that identified shortfalls at Waterford Regional Hospital.
Kathleen O’Meara, head of advocacy at the Irish Cancer Society, noted this was an interim report, but she called for assurances that services and resources would be fully implemented. “We feel the full report later this year is going to be the vital one in demonstrating that all the hospitals have met the standards and have attained the quality mark,” she said. “But it is very important that we receive assurances that the resources that are needed are made available, that staffing positions are filled, and that all the gaps are filled. Survival rates and treatment shouldn’t depend on where you live. It shouldn’t be different in Dublin, Cork, or Waterford, it should be same in all hospitals, that’s how you build confidence in people,” she added.
However, she said it was “inevitable” people would have concerns against a backdrop of misdiagnosis cases and “perhaps a lack of trust in how the HSE delivers things”. She added: “Those concerns will only be met when the full implementation is in place.”
Breast cancer campaign group Europa Donna Ireland also called for sufficient investment in the centres. Deirdre O’Connell, vice chairwoman, said: “We still think it is an improvement for women to be in these new centres.” She said the authority had assessed where the centres were “at that point in time”.
Former Independent Mayo TD and health services campaigner Dr Jerry Cowley said the concern was always that the centres of excellence were not fully equipped to take patients from other hospitals. “It would seem illogical removing services totally from one hospital when the new services were not totally set up to cope,” he said.
“There has always been a fear it can be more to do with saving money than actually improving services,” Dr Cowley said. However, he added he was reluctant to be overly negative about those seeking healthcare excellence.
Cancer care campaigner Jane Bailey said the report findings were a “major disappointment”.
“There should never have been a single person transferred to centres of excellence until standards were in place. For these centres now to be talking about working towards centres of excellence is absolute nonsense. People leaving Kilkenny, Wexford, Clonmel were promised they were coming to best care,” Ms Bailey said.
A spokesman for the authority stressed the Waterford report was part of several phases of assessment being done with the National Cancer Control Programme. He said they would produce full national reports on cancer treatment centres later this year.
