Seanad debates

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Cancer Treatment Services

 

2:00 pm

Photo of Paddy BurkePaddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Smith, to the House. He looked very relaxed as he waited. I wish him well for this afternoon.

I thank the Chair for allowing me raise the issue of services at Mayo General Hospital on the Adjournment. Last week the Minister for Health and Children was in Castlebar to open the BreastCheck unit there. She gave some figures on the number of breast cancer operations that have taken place at Mayo General Hospital to the media, to the public and to seven ladies who are involved in a campaign to save the cancer services at the hospital. The figures have greatly embarrassed the hospital's senior management, senior consultants and staff. I heard the Minister say on the radio that there were 37 operations annually at Mayo General Hospital and that, as this was less than one a week, they could easily be catered for at the proposed centre for excellence in Galway, notwithstanding the huge problems there are in Galway, not only in hospital capacity but in traffic and parking.

Yesterday, my party leader Enda Kenny, our health spokesperson Deputy James Reilly, our MEP, Jim Higgins, Deputies Michael Ring and John O'Mahony and I met the senior management and staff at Mayo General Hospital. The figures they gave us show that 97 breast cancer operations took place in 2007 at the hospital. That differs greatly from the figures given by the Minister for Health and Children, and great concern has been expressed by Mr. Barry, the senior consultant surgeon at the hospital. He has been taken aback by the interpretation and the figures that the Minister has put forward. There is no doubt that she has done that to downgrade Mayo General Hospital and take cancer services away from it. Mr. Barry told us clearly yesterday that, in 2000, the then Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Tom Moffat — a Mayoman — and Mary Hinds opened a satellite centre in Castlebar, which was linked to Galway in every way. We want to hold that centre in Castlebar at the Mayo General Hospital. The consultants at Galway and Castlebar work in conjunction with each other.

Mr. Barry said that the criteria laid out at the opening of the centre was that more than 50 operations would take place annually and that the hospital would stand up to scrutiny. There is no doubt that 97 operations took place last year. Mr. Barry has said that if the figure drops below 50 and if the centre does not stand up to scrutiny or the centre of excellence strategy, it should be closed. However, he guarantees that it is above board and will stand up to any scrutiny for any centre of excellence throughout the world.

I must put it on the record that the Minister for Health and Children did a huge disservice to the morale of the staff in the hospital. She should apologise to the staff and management of Mayo General Hospital. The national cancer strategy includes eight centres of excellence, with which we have no problem. However, if the strategy is based on the figures that the Minister for Health and Children gave to the media and put out into the public domain — 37 operations, instead of the 97 that took place — we have got the strategy completely wrong. I want to know where Professor Keane stands on the issue. What are his views on the figures indicated by the Minister for Health and Children?

I want also to know what is the Minister's definition of a centre of excellence. Is Castlebar a centre of excellence in its own right as a satellite of Galway? What is the position with Sligo? The Minister of State is in a hurry but I want to put on the record those issues and the deep dissatisfaction felt in Mayo General Hospital with how the Minister has put figures into the public domain. Will the Minister of State clarify the discrepancy between the figures? What year and what figures was the Minister for Children and Health talking about?

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.