Dáil debates

Thursday, 1 February 2007

 

Cancer Services: Motion (Resumed).

12:00 pm

Photo of Marian HarkinMarian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)

I wish to share time with Deputies Healy, Gregory, McHugh and Cowley.

Cancer screening saves lives. Cancer screening works. Cervical cancer is virtually 100% treatable if caught in time, yet all we have is a pilot programme that is now being evaluated. The only way forward is to roll out a national cervical screening programme now. Colorectal cancer screening is also effective. A total of 900 people die of that disease in Ireland each year. In the United Kingdom the National Health Service is rolling out a screening programme and we need to follow that lead.

The women of the north west are still waiting for BreastCheck. We were promised it in 2001, 2003 and 2005, and today BreastCheck says it will be delivered at the end of autumn 2007. We have waited too long.

There is a need for a regional radiotherapy service in the north west. The former North Western Health Board recommended that we move towards the provision of radiotherapy services, either within the board's old area or a larger north-west catchment area. Why will the Minister not give fair and equitable treatment to patients who require radiotherapy in the north west? The combined population of Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry is higher than the critical mass needed to provide these services with best practice.

The Government is spending billions of euro on cross-Border action so why will the Minister not include health infrastructure, particularly radiation services in that action? The Minister announced in July 2005 that she would set up arrangements for patients in the north west to travel to Belfast. Eighteen months later the reality is that most people cannot avail of this service. We know that Belfast can cope only with patients from Northern Ireland. It is unfair and indeed cruel to give hope to people about the provision of accessible radiation services and not to deliver.

While we in the north west are well used to not getting our fair share, there is something essentially wrong in a country where there is regional inequality in health provision. This is the second richest country in the European Union, with the highest growth rate, and we will not provide equality of access to radiotherapy for those who live a distance from large population centres.

The leaked memorandum from the HSE in December on the national plan for radiation oncology states that neither the 2008 interim targets nor the 2011 overall targets will be met. Non-involvement of the HSE prior to announcement and difficulties with public private partnerships is the problem. The Minister disagrees but that is not good enough. We need a categoric assurance from her that neither of these issues will delay the programme and that a regional radiation oncology service for the north west will be part of the health plan.

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