Health board plan for partnership to provide radiotherapy facilities

The Mid Western Health Board is proposing a private-public partnership for the provision of the area's first radiotherapy facility for cancer patients.

The board has made a formal proposal to the Minister for Health, and says the project will cost only €1.5 million of public funds. Radiotherapy facilities are now located only in Dublin and Cork.

The health board chairman, Cllr Sean Hillery (FF), said the proposal would cost the Exchequer next to nothing and at the same time save lives.

"It is already costing the State €1.5 million per annum to have cancer patients from the mid-west receive radiotherapy treatment elsewhere, so I don't think Minister Martin can say no to the proposal," he said.

"There are 750 people that need radiotherapy each year in the region, and only 350 to 400 avail of it because of the distance and discomfort involved in securing it elsewhere."

The health board plan calls for joining in a public-private partnership with the Private Mater Hospital and the Mid Western Hospitals Development Trust, a charitable fund-raising body. The trust has agreed to provide the capital costs of €6 million for the facility and has already raised over €4 million, with 100,000 people contributing to the cause.

Planning permission has already been secured on the site of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Dooradoyle, and the unit will be run by the Mater Private Hospital. The €1.5 million per year is needed by the health board to provide for public patients.

The health board's assistant chief executive officer, Mr John O'Brien, said yesterday the case for locating and funding the facility in the mid-west was "compelling".

Over the past three years, the health board has made its case for radiotherapy facilities to the Department's Expert Review Group on Radiotherapy Services. The group is due to deliver its report to the Department within two months and is expected to come out against plans for radiotherapy facilities in the region.

A campaign to get similar facilities for the south-east resulted last year in a petition of 50,000 signatures being handed to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern. Funding from the Minister is now the only stumbling block to the proposal.

Mr Hillery said: "The current situation causes great distress to patients who sometimes travel overnight on a round trip of 300 miles for therapy that lasts maybe five minutes. What we are looking for is a very necessary and life-saving service. There are no hidden costs to the Department in the proposal."

According to the chairman of the trust, Mr Louis Craven, only 21 per cent of cancer patients in the mid-west opt for radiotherapy, compared to 34 per cent in Dublin and Cork.