HUNDREDS OF cancer sufferers living long distances from treatment centres are to be helped under an agreement reached between the Irish Cancer Society and the State's new cancer chief, Prof Tom Keane.
The Irish Cancer Society currently spends about €150,000 a year to help defray costs that patients incur travelling for chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Under the plan to come into force from next month, however, the sums available for the society will be multiplied, and up to €750,000 is to be allocated by Prof Keane.
Significantly, perhaps, Prof Keane has decided to invest resources in a voluntary organisation, rather than using arms of the Health Service Executive, to organise patients' transportation.
Although already a major issue for many patients, transportation could become even more important in the years ahead as cancer services become more concentrated in specialist hospitals, and the number of cancer patients rise from 24,000 a year today to 40,000 a year by 2020.
Several years ago, patients could access cancer services of some kind in 30 hospitals, but this number has fallen to 20 and will fall again to eight under reforms intended to establish centres of excellence.
The Irish Cancer Society is currently recruiting 130 volunteer drivers to offer 1,560 trips for patients receiving treatment in a pilot programme run with St Anne's Treatment Clinic in St Vincent's Hospital.
Under the changes, patients will receive their first diagnosis in the eight top centres, but later chemotherapy and radiotherapy could be offered much closer to their home, said Irish Cancer Society chief executive John McCormack yesterday.
"[ Prof Keane] was very anxious that the transport service should be done in a very pragmatic and easy-to-access way, given his own experiences of a similar system in Canada," Mr McCormack told The Irish Times.