Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Recently in the Dáil my colleague Deputy Pearse Doherty raised the issue of chemotherapy patients from County Donegal yet again being forced to travel to Galway because of the failure to recruit a consultant in Letterkenny University Hospital. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, was not present that day to deal with the issue and Deputy Pearse Doherty expressed his outrage. He received a massive response in County Donegal. With all due respect to a very decent Minister of State, Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, whom I know, I am disgusted that the Minister is not here to deal with the issue, particularly when he knows of the anger expressed in County Donegal the last time he did not show up. This is the second time there is a big issue in County Donegal related to cancer services and he is not here to deal with it in person. I hope we will receive a very detailed response.

By way of background, two years ago the crisis in breast cancer diagnostics and surgical operations in Letterkenny was brought to the Government's attention. There was a meeting of the cancer campaign groups, Oireachtas Members, the HSE, Saolta and senior Department of Health officials to try to resolve the issues involved. It was agreed that a second consultant breast cancer surgeon would be allocated to the hospital because the demands on the consultant surgeons were absolutely untenable. A year later, in January 2016, the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, confirmed that the then Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, would shortly advertise the position and that the issue would be resolved a year after the crisis had manifested. We are now two years on and I am led to understand the National Cancer Control Programme is blocking the appointment and that the issue will not be resolved. The numbers of cancer patients in County Donegal were mentioned. We said the breast cancer surgeon was dealing with 3,000 cases per annum. The backlog is growing all the time. People are fiddling while Rome burns. I ask for a timeline and confirmation as to when a breast surgeon consultant will be appointed in Letterkenny to take the pressure off the consultant to whom I referred to make the service sustainable and give a guarantee to the people of County Donegal. Recently the North West Cancer Centre was opened. Services in counties Derry, Tyrone and Donegal are working together. If there is a shortage of numbers to justify the appointment of a second breast cancer surgeon in County Donegal, we should look at combining counties Derry, Tyrone and Donegal to have the critical mass required.

This issue needs to be sorted out. It has been ticking for two years. I need confirmation, on behalf of the people of County Donegal, that it will be sorted once and for all.