Galway gets a €1.5m radiotherapy boost

Hospital servicesPatients in the west of Ireland will be able to avail of the most advanced radiotherapy treatment available in Ireland with the arrival of the first of three linear accelerator radiation machines, costing €1.5 million each, at University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) this week.

When the new €100 million radiotherapy unit is up and running, it will provide 20,000 radiation treatments for up to 1,300 patients per annum.

Chief physicist with the Western Health Board (WHB), Prof Wil Van Der Putten, said it should take about three and a half months to commission the first machine. It is hoped to be able to start treating patients in January 2005. The second machine is due for delivery next month and the third machine in August.

Prof Van der Putten said the state-of-the-art machinery will allow for the most advanced radiotherapy treatments to be undertaken. Almost €1 million worth of testing equipment, including a simulator machine and CT scanner, has already been installed at the new unit.

Radiotherapy services manager at UCHG, Mr Eugene Farrell, said they were currently recruiting up to 25 radiation therapy staff, including nursing, engineering and technical support staff. There will be about 45 people working in the department altogether when it is running.

Mr Farrell said the Galway unit represented a huge step forward in the technology of cancer treatment in Ireland as it was the first time that all data would be entered and transferred electronically.

Once the machines have been commissioned, Mr Farrell's task will be to draw up treatment procedures and protocols in consultation with the consultant radiation oncologist and radiotherapy staff to standardise treatment for patients in the west of Ireland.

The 1996 National Cancer Strategy identified UCHG as a supra-regional cancer centre and since 1997 a total of over €60 million has been allocated to the WHB enabling the appointment of an additional 11 consultants in specialties such as medical oncology, histopathology, radiation oncology, surgery, radiology and haematology.