THE THREATENED dispute to radiotherapy services for cancer patients in the southeast appears to have eased after it emerged last night that the Health Service Executive (HSE) and management at the UPMC Whitfield Clinic in Waterford are to engage in discussions next Tuesday.
A joint statement said the HSE’s National Cancer Control Programme had agreed a process of engagement with the clinic with a view to resolving outstanding contractual issues.
“Until this process is concluded, we will not be making any further comment,” , the statement said. “We would, however, reassure patients that radiation oncology services at Whitfield will continue to be provided without interruption in the interim.”
The threatened dispute arose over contractual arrangements between the HSE and the centre over the provision of radiotherapy services until 2014. It is envisaged that by then, the HSE will have a new centre of excellence for cancer treatment in Waterford.
However, the existing contract between the two parties expired on December 31st last and attempts to negotiate a new agreement have stalled. Almost 800 patients from Wexford, Tipperary, Waterford, Carlow and Kilkenny receive radiotherapy treatment at the centre, some 600 of whom are HSE patients.
Dr Dale Hacking, UPMC associate clinical director at Whitfield, indicated to The Irish Times last night that developments in the past 24 hours gave cause for optimism. “The fact that there is engagement means we are a step forward to resolving our problems,” he said.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a new €1 million CAT scanner at Ennis General Hospital may be left idle for up to nine months.
The HSE has confirmed that the suspension of the CAT-scanning service at the hospital since last October may not be lifted until the middle of this year, depending on the appointment of extra consultants.
Fine Gael TD Joe Carey called on Minister for Health Mary Harney and HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm to intervene.
A HSE spokesman said: “The temporary suspension of the Ennis service was due to the departure of a temporary radiologist and made in the best interests of patient safety. A second CAT scanner has been put in place at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.”