PLANS TO move the initial diagnosis and treatment of all breast cancer patients to eight specialist centres is likely to be completed by next March, interim director of the national cancer control programme Prof Tom Keane said yesterday.
While a small group from the northwest protested outside about plans to remove breast cancer services from Sligo General Hospital, Prof Keane told the fourth All-Ireland Cancer Conference at Dublin's Four Seasons Hotel that he hoped to move breast cancer services from Drogheda to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin by next February and services from Sligo General to Galway by next March. The only other breast cancer services which still have to be moved are those at Tallaght hospital and the South Infirmary in Cork. He hopes these will also be moved to designated centres by March.
He said the centralisation of the services from 20 hospitals in September 2007 down to 12 now hadn't been easy. There had been a great deal of dialogue with local communities to assure them their local hospital wasn't being closed.
He said 93 per cent of women who have to travel to a designated centre for investigation of breast cancer will only have to make one trip. Only 7 per cent will be diagnosed with breast cancer and have to return. He also presented figures showing how survival rates differ between patients treated at hospitals which see high volumes of cancer cases compared to those treating few cases every year. Those treated in high-volume centres are more likely to survive.
The group of about 60 people from the northwest led by Killian McLoughlin, chairman of the Save Sligo Cancer Services group, who protested outside, said the fight to maintain cancer services at Sligo hospital would continue.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said while she understood the concern patients have when cancer services are reorganised, she wanted to put in place the best possible service for all cancer patients, including those in Sligo.
"The only way we can get good results, such as we do with children's cancer, is by having them properly organised with multidisciplinary teams of doctors in the eight centres," she said.
Meanwhile, Prof Keane told delegates his priorities for next year include ensuring special diagnostic clinics for prostate and lung cancer patients are established and work will continue on trying to separate out cancer funding from the HSE's overall budget.
"To progress separation of cancer budgets within the HSE remains a challenge. There is considerable work going on . . . but not all of the cancer money has yet been identified," he confirmed.