Cancer treatment: Cancer campaigners yesterday reacted angrily to a suggestion from the head of the health service that there aren't enough people in the northwest to justify basing a radiotherapy service there.Northwest's population an'obstacle' to services
One leading campaigner said last night the policy meant more people were expected to become sick before chances to cure them would be improved.
Prof Brendan Drumm, chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), said he understood the frustrations of campaigners for a radiotherapy service in the northwest. But he said the sparse population of the region presented obstacles to establishing a quality service to meet the needs of cancer patients in Sligo, Donegal and Leitrim.
Donegal Action for Cancer Care (DACC) said, however, it would continue to oppose Government plans to agree arrangements with authorities for patients in the Republic's Border counties to travel to Belfast for treatment.
DACC spokeswoman Lynn McDevitt said: "What they are saying is they want more people to get sick before they will give us what we are looking for.
"We are not standing for it. We want our centre in Donegal. We will take to the streets if needs be," she added.
"It's outrageous that people have to travel to Dublin, sometimes in their pyjamas, stopping at pubs and restaurants for bathroom breaks.
"It's just not on in this day and age," she said.
Cancer patients in Donegal have, in many cases, to make return journeys of more than eight hours for treatment.
Prof Drumm, a native of Sligo, said yesterday that nobody recognised better than he what it meant having to travel from the northwest to Dublin and Galway for radiotherapy.
"But we also face the problem that people have to get a world-class service.
"I don't think I am exaggerating when I say the number one thing that everybody wants when they have a cancer is they want to know they are getting the best service they can anywhere.
"People are prepared to get on a plane and even go to America to get the best."
Prof Drumm told Ocean FM radio station in Sligo that any plan to introduce a service with the best skills to the northwest was complicated by the population factor.
The various experts would need to be performing their skills regularly to keep the quality of service up to the required level.
"If I am a carpenter or a plumber, I need to be working fairly regularly if I am going to be good at it," he said.