Sir, - I wonder if the public is aware that the then President, Mrs Mary Robinson, opened a fully equipped oncology unit with fully trained staff at Portlaoise Hospital in December 1994. The unit has never been used. Why?
The present Minister for Health, Mr Brian Cowen, sanctioned cancer facilities to be set up at Tullamore Hospital. The facilities are already at Portlaoise waiting to be put to use after four years' waiting.
The delay causes extreme hardship for patients who have to travel 50 miles to Dublin, their nearest treatment centre. Tullamore is equally far on a bad road with no public transport and no unit yet built. - Yours, etc., Elizabeth O'Kelly,
Stradbally, Co Laois.