Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator MacSharry for raising this important issue and for giving me the opportunity to outline the position on Sligo General Hospital.

As the House is aware, the HSE has appointed Professor Tom Keane as national cancer control director to lead and manage the establishment of the national cancer control programme. The delivery of cancer services in this way will serve to ensure equity of access to services and equality of patient outcome irrespective of geography. This will involve significant realignment of cancer services to move from the present fragmented system of care to one that is consistent with international best practice in cancer control.

The decisions of the HSE on four managed cancer control networks and eight cancer centres will be implemented on a managed and phased basis. The HSE plans to have completed 50% of the transition of services to the cancer centres by the end of 2008 and 80% to 90% by the end of 2009.

Sligo General Hospital has a dedicated inpatient oncology unit comprising 15 beds and a dedicated day services unit comprising eight beds. The HSE has informed the Department that in 2006, Sligo General Hospital had 285 patient discharges from its inpatient unit and 3,849 discharges from its day care unit. The HSE has also designated University College Hospital Galway and Limerick Regional Hospital as the two cancer centres in the managed cancer control network for the HSE's western region, which includes counties Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal. Letterkenny Hospital is linked to the centre in UCHG because of its unique geographical circumstances.

The designation of cancer centres aims to ensure that patients receive the highest quality care while at the same time allowing local access to services, where appropriate. Where diagnosis and treatment planning are directed and managed by multidisciplinary teams based at the cancer centres, much of the treatment, other than surgery, can be delivered in local hospitals, such as that in Sligo. Cancer day care units will continue to have an important role in delivering services to patients as close to home as possible. Patients from Sligo needing radiotherapy are referred to the radiation oncology department at UCHG for treatment.

The HSE has informed the Department that in 2006, UCHG treated almost 1,000 radiation oncology patients. The number of treatments increased from 11,300 in 2005 to 18,500 in 2006. The hospital expects treatments provided to increase by 7% this year over last year.

The Department and HSE have been working closely on the examination of procurement options to expedite the delivery of the national plan for radiation oncology. The Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, has been assured that the HSE will have in place radiation oncology capacity to meet the needs of the population by 2010. After 2010, the HSE will continue to increase capacity to ensure that these needs will continue to be met. The Minister is fully confident that this will be achieved through a combination of direct Exchequer provision, public private partnership and, where appropriate, the use of the private sector.

The Government is committed to making the full range of cancer services available and accessible to cancer patients throughout Ireland in accordance with best international standards. I hope the developments which I outlined here today will ensure that a comprehensive service will be available to all patients with cancer in the west, including Sligo. I assure Senator MacSharry that I will relate the very strong views he expressed on Sligo General Hospital to the Minister and the HSE at the first available opportunity.