Sir, - On behalf of the Irish Society of Medical Oncology, we would like to express our profound concern regarding the current situation of cancer nursing in Ireland, and the possible implications of the forthcoming nurses' strike.
The society wishes to acknowledge the crucial and irreplaceable contributions of specialist cancer nurses and other nursing colleagues to the provision of modern, safe, humane, holistic, patient-centred cancer care. We also recognise the essential legitimacy of the nurses' concerns regarding their working conditions. In the light of the ongoing, severe shortage of specialist nurses which is currently crippling our cancer services, we urge the authorities to take appropriate measures to ensure that specialist cancer nursing becomes and remains an attractive and appropriately rewarded career option.
We would also like to place on the record our firm conviction that the strike, if it proceeds, will result in substantial physical and psychological suffering for many of our patients with cancer, and may hasten the deaths of others.
As these effects will increase in proportion to the duration of any dispute, we urge the Government to enter into speedy and conclusive negotiations with the representatives of the nurses, both in an attempt to avoid the disaster which we are facing next week, and to solve the long-term structural problems of the profession - problems which have led countless specialist and general nurses to resign from positions in our hospital service in recent years. - Yours, etc.,
Desmond N. Carney, President, John P. Crown, Secretary, Department of Medical Oncology, St Vincent's University Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin 4.