CONSULTANT TIM O’Hanrahan has accused Minister for Health Mary Harney of being “disingenuous” in suggesting that only one breast surgeon opposes the transfer of cancer services from Sligo to Galway.
Sligo-based Mr O’Hanrahan, who specialises in breast surgery and who has consistently opposed the transfer of the breast cancer unit from Sligo General Hospital (SGH), said the Minister had deliberately portrayed him as “a maverick” when she was aware that more than 50 consultants in SGH had been unanimous in their opposition to the move, as has the local GP Society, which represents about 70 family doctors.
He stressed that he had been contacted this week by a number of other breast surgeons “and a lot of general surgeons” from around the country who said that what was happening to the Sligo unit was wrong.
“I do not think that people involved in breast care have the freedom to speak out publicly but I have had a lot of support from my colleagues, who disapprove of what is happening. The majority say it is crazy but they cannot speak out because they are afraid to fall out of favour and are afraid of losing resources,” Mr O’Hanrahan said.
He said that comments made by Ms Harney on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Thursday night were unfair and he questioned her suggestion that the weight of national and international medical expertise was fully behind her.
“That is not true. Eminent people like Prof John Crown, who has an international reputation, have criticised this.”
The consultant said that while the Minister had not named him on Prime Time, it was very clear that she was referring to him.
“This is not about me and I don’t regard myself as an expert on anything but I do have a fount of local knowledge which is being disrespected,” he said.
Since Thursday GPs in the northwest have been prohibited from referring new patients requiring investigations for potential breast cancer to SGH. The department said chemotherapy and follow-up care would continue to be provided in Sligo, but said “the best outcomes for patients are achieved by initial diagnosis, treatment plan, surgery and radiotherapy being carried out by multidisciplinary teams dealing with large numbers of patients”.
It predicted that 16 to 20 new cases would be referred from Sligo to Galway each week of whom “roughly two” per week would require surgery.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil’s Mayo TD Beverley Flynn has called on University College Hospital, Galway (UCHG) to adopt a “more reasonable policy” on readmission of cancer patients.
She said it was “completely unacceptable that a returning oncology patient presenting for emergency treatment should have to endure the delay of going through accident and emergency all over again”.
“Incredibly, the existing regulation is that such a patient, however sick or in need of urgent attention, must report in at AE as if for the first time, provide once again his registration details and then wait in line with other sick people before being seen by AE staff and then referred to oncology.”
