Sligo cancer services talks this weekend

CONSULTANTS IN the northwest will step up their campaign to prevent the transfer of breast cancer services from Sligo General Hospital if no progress is made during talks with politicians this weekend.

TDs and Senators who live within the hospital's catchment area have been invited to meet representatives of the hospital consultants and the local GP society in Sligo on Saturday.

With the service due to be transferred to Galway by March, consultant breast surgeon Tim O'Hanrahan said there was unanimity among the hospital consultants that the plan must be reversed in the interests of their patients and medical care.

Mr O'Hanrahan said the meeting would not be a shouting match. They would explain their views to the politicians, he said, and they would be urging the politicians to take this message back to Leinster House.

"We feel passionately about this, professionally and personally," the consultant said.

He said the doctors would be reasonable and would await a response from the politicians before outlining their next step.

However, the campaign would be stepped up if no progress was made, Mr O'Hanrahan said. "We have to await their response but there is too much at stake here for us to stand by and let it happen."

A small group representing the hospital consultants and cancer care team as well as the GP society will make their case to an all-party group of politicians from Sligo, Leitrim, north Roscommon, south Donegal and east Mayo.

Fianna Fáil Senator Marc MacSharry yesterday urged the head of the national cancer strategy, Prof Tom Keane, to change the current approach and adopt the methods taken at his base in British Columbia, in Canada.

Mr MacSharry said the British Columbia Cancer Agency was adjusting its cancer strategy to account for the lack of facilities in the northern part of the province and was now planning to open an additional centre in the city of Prince George in 2012.

The HSE had selected the British Columbia cancer strategy as a model, he said, and it was significant that British Columbia "is acknowledging that geography and equitably accessible cancer services are essential considerations in the implementation of an effective cancer control strategy".