Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Reilly for tabling this motion. The Minister for Health and Children asked for truth in this debate and I will therefore state a few home truths.

Over recent years, 13 cancer centres have been closed on the basis that cancer patients would receive better treatment and have higher survival rates by transferring services to regional services. The cancer services provided at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe and Roscommon County Hospital form part of the service in our regional centre based in University College Hospital, Galway, UCHG. Local public representatives, including me, accepted the regionalisation plan in good faith on the basis that the Government would not dare mess with people's lives by under-resourcing cancer services. We soon found that the transport service that had been provided to cancer patients was withdrawn. Consequently, they had to try to make their own way to Galway, which, for some of my constituents, involves a journey of three and a half hours. The lack of public transport means patients must get their spouses to take days off work and arrange for relatives or neighbours to pick up their children from school just so they can have the pleasure of queuing for up to an hour to get into the hospital carpark. This is after surviving the traffic congestion in and around Galway city.

As a result of the reduction in the number of surgical cases in Portiuncula Hospital and Roscommon County Hospital, the HSE is now planning to transfer the department of surgery in the latter to the former as an interim measure before centralising all inpatient surgery procedures in an already congested UCHG.

We were told there would be more local outpatient clinics, with the consultants doing the travelling and examining patients in Roscommon and Portiuncula hospitals rather than having the patients trek to Galway. This commitment was abandoned. One affected clinic is the urology clinic in Roscommon County Hospital. Since the health authorities would not sanction the €50,000 needed to purchase three sets of cystoscopy equipment to carry out the physical examination, patients must still travel to Galway to be examined.

We were promised that local post-treatment services would be enhanced but the opposite occurred. I refer to the withdrawal of home help services and home care packages. To top it all off, we found out last week that the HSE cancelled the plan to develop an eight-bed hospice service at Roscommon County Hospital in addition to the day care and outpatient services, at a total cost of €8 million, half of which was to be provided by the Mayo-Roscommon Hospice Foundation. The HSE claims it has reprioritised the investment. Last year, Roscommon County Hospital catered for 90 palliative care patients, and many other patients from County Roscommon were treated in other hospitals. The HSE's decision means patients with terminal cancer must now wait for one of the 14 beds in Galway or one of the 14 planned beds in Castlebar to become available.

We now find that, although there is a great backlog of patients for cancer diagnosis in UCHG, that hospital will close down for the full month of August because it is facing a financial deficit of €4.5 million. So much for our centres of excellence and the commitment that was made to deliver excellent services to the communities in which services have been closed down. The current plan will double the number of patients attending UCHG by closing down the services in Mayo and Sligo. UCHG cannot even cope with the demand being placed on it by patients in Roscommon and Galway, never mind those in the north west who will now be thrust upon it.

In her contribution, the Minister stated two additional beds will be provided at UCHG. This will cater for the two operations per week that are taking place in Mayo but will not cater for the patients of the north west who are currently being treated in Sligo. No additional capacity has been provided to cater for this.

The Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, stated further investment is needed in the so-called centres of excellence in Galway and that the funding will be made available over the years ahead. It is clear that the excellent services in Mayo and Sligo will be cut. These services resulted in survival rates above the averages in any other hospital in Europe. We are told we will have an adequately resourced service some time in the future but we have the facts regarding what is happening in my county and know the same will happen in Mayo and Sligo. I commend the motion to the House.

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