Doctors hoping to meet Cowen on transfer of cancer unit

HOSPITAL CONSULTANTS and GPs in the northwest are hoping to meet Taoiseach Brian Cowen to make the case for the retention of breast cancer services at Sligo General Hospital.

The doctors, who have consistently campaigned against the transfer of the unit to University College Hospital Galway, held a two-hour meeting with TDs and Senators from the region in Sligo on Saturday as the deadline for the proposed move approaches.

Breast cancer surgeon Tim O’Hanrahan, one of the most outspoken critics of the plan, described Saturday’s meeting which was not open to the media as “very positive”.

It is understood that Minister of State Jimmy Devins agreed to seek a meeting between the Taoiseach and a delegation of local consultants and family doctors to allow them make their case.

Mr Devins and his party colleagues in the constituency bore the brunt of public anger when they voted with the Government against a Fine Gael-Labour motion in the Dáil last May calling for the retention of services in Sligo and Castlebar. Last week Mr O’Hanrahan warned that the consultants would step up their campaign if no progress was made on Saturday but after the meeting he said that they would now wait for feedback from the politicians.

Before the meeting he had called for a “Tallaght Strategy” approach from the cross-party selection of politicians attending.

The surgeon said there had been a “full and frank” discussion after his colleague, consultant physician Dr Donal Murray, introduced four presentations by clinicians from the hospital and members of the local GP society.

Asked whether he would welcome an opportunity for face-to-face talks with the Taoiseach, Mr O’Hanrahan said he and his colleagues would talk to anyone in a bid to bring common sense to bear on the situation.