A PLANNED £60 million (€68 million) northwest cancer treatment centre based in Derry and due to be financed jointly by the departments of health in Belfast and Dublin has been shelved.
Stormont Minister for Health Michael McGimpsey made the announcement during the last plenary session of the current Assembly ahead of the May elections.
Citing budgetary constraints, especially in relation to staffing and training costs, Mr McGimpsey told the house his “hands were tied” and he admitted some of his decisions “can only cause pain and anxiety to the public”.
“The final budget allocation slashed my available capital spend to £851 million [nearly €980 million] – almost £500 million less than the original £1.3 billion promised under the Investment Strategy for Northern Ireland.”
The Irish Government remains committed to the new cancer treatment unit and has ringfenced €19 million for investment as part of an overall cross-Border investment of some €466 million on transport and other schemes.
Minister for Health James Reilly confirmed last night he had written to Mr McGimpsey reaffirming the Government’s commitment to providing a capital contribution to the development at Altnagelvin.
In a statement, Dr Reilly’s office said: “This contribution recognises the fact that approximately one-third of the patients who would attend the Altnagelvin centre would be from Donegal and the surrounding areas.
“In addition, the National Cancer Control Programme will contribute on an agreed basis to the operating costs in respect of patients from the Republic of Ireland who attend this service.”
Mr McGimpsey’s announcement prompted a storm of criticism, particularly from lobby groups on behalf of cancer patients in the northwest who have to travel from Donegal and Derry to Belfast for radiotherapy.
Pledging two additional radiotherapy machines in Belfast’s City Hospital, Mr McGimpsey said: “This will help provide the capacity that is needed in the short to medium-term while the longer-term service issues are being resolved.”
This would “take up the vast majority of the available capital for new schemes”.
Gerard Guckian, chairman of the Western Health and Social Care Trust which runs Altnagelvin in Derry, where the new centre was to be located, said the trust was “disappointed” but would “work tirelessly with our healthcare colleagues north and south of the Border to secure the delivery of this scheme”.
The DUP and SDLP were both critical of the Ulster Unionist Minister’s announcement.