Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that the current situation for cancer services and the location of those at University Hospital Kerry is not sustainable and is not what anybody wants to see. I visited the hospital just last month and discussed this with the senior management in the hospital. The priority is that every patient in Kerry receives the best possible care in the right environment. The solution to this is the new oncology unit, which will greatly increase capacity at the hospital. The project is going through the various capital stages. I am happy to say it completed appraisal last year, the design team has been appointed and the project is being advanced this year. I have made it clear to the Department, the HSE and the team in Kerry that this is a priority.

The chemotherapy services operate on a hub and spoke model nationally, providing patients with treatment closer to the home where that is appropriate, including in Kerry. Over the course of the cancer strategy, there has been an increase in the number of patients receiving chemotherapy. The developments are taking place under the strategy, which has received significant investment in recent years, with €20 million in new development funding and capital funding for exactly this situation. We do not want a situation where chemotherapy services are being delivered while displacing other parts of the patient service. As the Deputy referenced in his opening remarks, they are currently co-located with palliative care, as they have been in the other places, and I am told there has been a knock-on effect, for example, on day case procedures as well.

The focus here is on progressing the new unit as quickly as possible. It has been approved and the design team is in place. What I want to see now is a rapid conclusion of that as we move to build. As I discussed with the team when I was there, we would also like to take a modular build approach, which we know can put these facilities in place a lot quicker than the traditional approach that has been used.

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