FG cancer service promise 'a mistake'

MINISTER OF State and Sligo-Leitrim TD John Perry admitted yesterday it was a mistake to promise that breast cancer services would resume at Sligo General Hospital within 100 days of the Government taking office.

During the election campaign, Fine Gael promised to restore the service within 100 days, while Labour said a ninth centre of excellence would be provided in Sligo.

Amid angry scenes at a press conference in Sligo,  the Fine Gael TD was jeered and accused of giving his constituents “crumbs” when he announced that mammography services would resume at the hospital this year and that a second medical oncologist would be appointed.

The Save Our Cancer Services group called on Mr Perry and other Oireachtas members in the constituency to resign in line with commitments given during the election campaign.

Mr Perry, who did not put any timeline on the resumption of  surgical and diagnostic breast cancer services, insisted that he had been assured by Minister for Health Dr James Reilly that “the door remains very much open”  on the issue. On the 100-days deadline, he said it was a mistake to make the promise before the election “but that does not mean that the service will not be returned”.

But  campaigners reacted with fury when he announced  that mammography would resume at the hospital, given that the then minister for health Mary Harney had always agreed that it would remain in Sligo General Hospital after the unit closed in August 2009. Mr Perry, speaking on behalf of Dr Reilly, also said Sligo would be one of the colonoscopy centres for the national colo-rectal cancer screening programme to be announced next year – but campaigners said a similar announcement had been made months ago by the previous government.

Mr Perry was told that a mammography machine, which was bought with funds raised by local people through charity events, was lying idle “with a blanket thrown over it” in the hospital.

Patients have been forced to travel to Galway for mammograms, reportedly because of staffing issues in Sligo. “We destroyed Fianna Fáil for you, John Perry,” campaigner Deirdre O’Sullivan told him.

She said she had given almost four years of her life to the campaign and would now have to tell people who voted for Fine Gael and Labour on the basis of undertakings given,  that the Government was reneging on its promises.

Mr Perry who initially denied having promised to resign if the unit was not restored to Sligo, said his view was that it was better to fight inside Government than outside it.

He presented a “briefing paper” which he said had only been approved by the Health Service Executive on May 27th last, 80 days after the Government took office and which he said presented all the facts about the hospital, for the first time.

This report put forward two options, one of which would see breast cancer services provided at both Sligo and Letterkenny hospitals with a joint multi-disciplinary team for the two centres.

The Minister conceded that yesterday’s announcement was only “a small step” but he said he would do everything humanly possible to get the service restored.

In a statement, campaigners said they would not accept this “latest betrayal” by Government members. “We call upon them to honour their promise to resign should cancer services not be restored,” said the statement.