Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, should be here, considering his failure to be in the Dáil to take the recent related Topical Issue raised by my colleague Deputy Pearse Doherty. I seek clarification. It has been stated steps are being taken to appoint a full-time locum consultant breast surgeon. In my dictionary "locum" means a replacement. It is not a second full-time position to work in tandem with the single consultant who is there and who, as everybody knows, has been under ferocious pressure for two years.

The people of County Donegal welcomed the opening of the North West Cancer Centre in Derry and would welcome the combining of counties Derry, Tyrone and Donegal to provide the critical mass of population required to ensure patients would not have to travel from County Donegal to Galway or Dublin, as they have had to for years. What has been forced on people in County Donegal is inhumane, indecent and wrong. We want to know whether there will be a second full-time consultant breast surgeon, not a locum, something that was promised to us in the mouth of the general election in January last year. We heard a statement to that effect from the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, on behalf of the then Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar, and it was welcomed by the cancer campaign groups. We have sat and waited. In the last week Deputy Pearse Doherty and I have been advised by the cancer campaign groups and senior people within the hospital that the filling of the position has been blocked. I would like to have it confirmed that there will not be a locum but a second full-time consultant breast surgeon to work with the large number of patients - as I said, 3,000 - who are being dealt with by the team there. There are hundred and hundreds on what is a growing waiting list. Therefore, we need assurances. Will there be two consultant breast surgeons in Letterkenny University Hospital? We do not locums or to see drop in and out arrangements. Will there be two consultant breast surgeons in order that it can be a stand-alone service which will work in partnership with chemotherapy and radiotherapy services? That is what we need to strengthen services in Letterkenny.In Donegal and the north west we want to ensure that cancer patients, from diagnostics right through to radiotherapy, can be treated within the region and do not have to travel. We want equality of cancer care and equality of access for our cancer patients, and the Minister needs to assure us that these things are on the way. I do not mean locums, nor replacements, nor part-time drop-ins but equality of access for patients in Donegal.

I wish the Minister for Health was here as he is directly responsible for these things but I call on the Minister of State to give the necessary assurances. If possible, she can get the Minister to contact my office to do so himself.