Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Fáilte tAire, mo chara dílis. I ask the Minister for Health to redirect the €40,000 funding approved under the treatment abroad scheme for a Galway father with colon and liver cancer towards better life-saving treatment in the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, which has the best record for cure and life-saving outcomes in this area.

I will give the Minister of State the background to this request. This story concerns a young father of 40 with three children living in Oranmore. Earlier this year he was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer. He is a very fit man and this was a surprise to everybody. He told me when I met him last week that the tumour growing inside him is so big at this stage that he can feel it. He has been to cancer specialists in Galway and Dublin hospitals, all of whom have worked in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. It is world-renowned and reputed to be the best for cancer treatment in the world. My cousin was treated there and he is alive today.

Further to much research and in consultant with the Irish specialists, their recommendation is that his best chance of survival and securing the best health outcomes, despite undergoing chemotherapy here, is to travel to the Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York. The good news is that following examination he has been deemed an ideal candidate by the hospital. The bad news is the cost of treatment and aftercare, which is approximately $175,000 or €150,000, which includes at least six months follow-on monitoring and trips to the United States for care and attention. The other critical factor is that if the family wait any longer there will not be enough of the liver unaffected by the tumour to accommodate the best recommended treatment, which is the insertion of a chemotherapy pump inside his body.

Funding difficulties and complications have arisen. On application for financial support under the treatment abroad scheme, the Health Service Executive, HSE, has contacted the family and myself to say it will cover the treatment for this cancer condition but only in France, that is, within the European Union boundaries. The family and doctors are grateful for this acknowledgement but on examination the French treatment is an external chemotherapy pump deemed not ideal for this man's condition and, most importantly, this treatment has not achieved the life and health outcomes achieved by the treatment in Sloan-Kettering.

My request on behalf of this family, who travel tomorrow to the US for surgery on Friday to have the chemotherapy pump inserted, is that the funding granted for treatment in France of €40,000 be redirected to the treatment in New York. I am not asking the Minister for additional money but that the money follow the patient, which as the Minister and I know was our promise to the people before the last election. That money will give this man his best chance at life and recovery. The Minister of State may quote rules and regulations about EU boundaries but it is time we put the patient first, regardless of territorial boundaries.

This young family are under enough pressure already without having to be forced to sell their home to pay for the treatment. I want this father to live to see and enjoy his young children growing up. Having researched the French treatment, it would concern them greatly if they had to rely on it. There is less control when the chemotherapy pump is external to the body. They are familiar with a case where the external chemotherapy pump malfunctioned and, unfortunately, the patient died. The track record of success is far less in France. The Minister's goal, and my goal as a Senator, should be to invest the money for patient treatment and care where the outcomes are best.

I ask the Minister of State who is replying for the Minister, Deputy Reilly, to lift the rigid rules of the treatment abroad scheme and allow the €40,000 approved for treatment in France follow this patient to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Had this funding not been approved we would have a big problem but we are lucky. Everybody is behind this family. His family and friends have set up a trust called For Pete's Sake. They have also set up a huge fund-raising campaign. Thirty of this man's friends have borrowed €1,000 each to let this family get on its way. Everyone has put their shoulder to the wheel. I ask now that the State would put its shoulder to the wheel, think outside the box and redirect the funding that is approved to New York.