Cancer treatment: The number of hospitals treating certain cancer patients and the number of surgeons operating on patients with specific types of cancer will have to be reduced to provide better quality of care for patients, Minister for Health Mary Harney has signalled.
She said this would result in better outcomes for patients.
Ms Harney indicated that in Northern Ireland the number of surgeons performing breast surgery, for example, had been reduced "from around 40 to around 10" and the number of hospitals treating cancer patients had also been reduced. "We will have to do something similar here," she said.
She acknowledged, however, that the issue would be contentious. "Clearly in that debate you get the lethal mix of medical politics and party politics," she said. But she added that from a patient's point of view, when these elements mixed, patients suffered.
Her comments came yesterday at the publication of a report which shows the incidence of and mortality rates from cancer are higher in the Republic than many other western European countries. If a patient had breast surgery in a hospital where few breast operations were carried out every year, the outcomes were not as good, she said.
Her remarks also came on a day when Donegal Action for Cancer Care, the campaign group representing cancer patients in Donegal, said Letterkenny General Hospital was to suspend services for new breast cancer patients from June 1st unless a permanent breast surgeon was appointed to the hospital.
A spokesman for the group, Jim O'Donnell, said the hospital only had a temporary breast surgeon whose contract expired shortly. The action group is concerned that if breast cancer services are lost to Letterkenny, then other cancer services at the hospital could also be lost, forcing patients to travel for treatments. They already have to travel long distances for radiotherapy.
Noelle Duddy, chairwoman of Donegal Action for Cancer Care, called for a permanent breast surgeon to be appointed to the hospital. She said it appeared the HSE was of the opinion that symptomatic breast services should be removed from Letterkenny.
She said the HSE suggested during a meeting last month that a possible solution to the provision of breast services in Donegal would be to split the county into two, with women in the northern part being directed to Altnagelvin and women in the south of the county being directed to Sligo for treatment. "The outcome of such a decision would be to effectively close down not only Letterkenny's breast unit but all its other cancer treatments," she said. "We will be expecting every one of our elected representatives to stand with Donegal Action for Cancer Care and the people of Donegal as they demonstrate for the right to receive cancer treatments in Letterkenny General Hospital," she added.
A spokeswoman for the HSE North West Area said approval for the current breast care service in Letterkenny was acknowledged in a letter to the hospital last year by the National Hospitals Office. However, it did not comment on whether a permanent surgeon would be appointed.
The Government's advisory body on cancer care, the National Cancer Forum, has submitted a plan for a cancer strategy to Ms Harney. It has recommended a radical restructuring of how hospitals treat the condition.