A DOCTOR working for the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada is in discussions with the Health Service Executive (HSE) about taking over as director of the State’s National Cancer Control Programme.
Dr Susan O’Reilly, who would have worked closely with the previous head of the cancer control programme, Prof Tom Keane, in Canada, is understood to be the front runner to succeed him.
Asked to comment yesterday, the HSE would only say the recruitment process to find a replacement for Prof Keane is ongoing.
Dr O’Reilly hasn’t yet accepted the job but informed sources said she is in talks with the HSE about the terms and conditions which would attach to the job were she to leave her employment to move to Ireland to take up the post.
Insiders say Dr O’Reilly, a medical oncologist who has Irish connections, would be ideal for the post given her experience as vice-president of cancer care at the British Columbia agency.
Furthermore, they say if Prof Keane were to succeed Prof Brendan Drumm as chief executive of the HSE later this year – a move Minister for Health Mary Harney favours – he and Dr O’Reilly would make a formidable management team.
During Prof Keane’s two-year term as head of the State’s cancer control programme, the diagnosis and surgical treatment of breast cancer was centralised into eight designated cancer centres.
His successor will be charged with continuing to develop rapid access clinics for the diagnosis of lung and prostate cancer, centralising rectal cancer surgery and centralising pancreatic cancer surgery at Dublin’s St Vincent’s hospital. Overseeing the expansion of radiation oncology facilities and ensuring target waiting times set for diagnosis and treatment of symptomatic breast cancer patients continue to be met are also central to the role.