Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

Approximately 22,000 cases of cancer are registered each year, from which 7,000 people will die. I support Deputy O'Rourke's comments on transport provision for cancer patients. Over 50% of cancer patients are over 65 years of age. How does a 65-year old patient travel from Mullingar to Dublin or from Letterkenny to Galway for treatment if a specialised transport service is not available? Concerns have already been expressed on special travel arrangements for patients from the mid-west to Dublin for specialist treatments. There is a reluctance by the HSE at local level to recognise the need to provide comfortable travel to treatment centres for patients.

The 2006 national cancer forum recommended that HIQA establish a national quality framework for cancer control in both the public and private health services. Despite the serious deficiencies in breast cancer care in Barringtons Hospital, a private Limerick hospital, it was made clear yesterday that the new cancer services supremo will have no remit over cancer services provided exclusively in the private sector. Up to 50% of the population is covered by private health insurance but the quality of their services will not be supervised. The Minister must revisit this.

In today's The Irish Times, Dr. Muiris Houston states:

. . . this means that both Minister for Health Mary Harney and the HSE have sanctioned a reverse two-tier system of care for cancer patients. While public patients will benefit from the new cancer control strategy, those who choose the private sector will be treated in a system with no explicit quality control mechanisms.

The message to patients is clear: despite the push from Government and in particular the Minister to privatise medical services in the Republic, neither the Department of Health nor the HSE are, as yet, willing to assume responsibility for the quality and safety of services provided by the private sector.

Will the Minister address the rationale behind exposing private sector patients to less than best practice, as happened at Barringtons Hospital?

The health services are in a shambles. Ward closures have recently occurred in certain hospitals due to cutbacks. Recently, a family member had to attend the Mid-West Regional Hospital but could not be admitted because no bed was available.

Cutbacks have also affected suicide resource officers, responsible for providing suicide-related information and training in communities. The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Devins, will be aware of the applied suicide intervention skills training, ASIST, programme. It has been cut back because the Department has informed the organisers they cannot continue providing courses in hotels. If that is the Minister's commitment to suicide prevention, it is a bad start for him.

See this speech in context