Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister apologises that he cannot be here this morning. On his behalf, I thank Senator Devine for raising the issue, which gives me an opportunity to update the House on the matter. Sarcomas are rare cancers with about 220 cases occurring annually in Ireland. Services for patients with sarcoma are currently provided in St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin and in Cork University Hospital. Both hospitals are designated cancer centres and have an extensive range of multidisciplinary services and expert clinical advice available to them. A national clinical lead in soft tissue sarcomas is in place to oversee services for patients. Patients have their cases presented and discussed at one of the two sarcoma multidisciplinary teams and members of these teams have links with European specialists in sarcoma. The treatment of sarcomas requires integrated multidisciplinary care, with the involvement of many different clinicians. St. Vincent’s University Hospital has provided highly specialised and individualised treatment to sarcoma sufferers for a number of years. St. Vincent’s has access to all of the relevant specialties for treatment, including surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, radiology and pathology. It is the largest provider of surgical procedures for soft tissue sarcomas in the country.

The Health Service Executive is committed lo providing a high quality, responsive and sustainable service for sarcoma patients. To support the existing range of services for patients with sarcoma, an additional permanent post of consultant medical oncologist with a special interest in sarcoma has been approved for St. Vincent’s. The HSE has advised that interviews for this position took place last week and a successful candidate has been identified.

The Department is currently working on a new national cancer strategy for the next decade. Services for rare cancers, such as sarcoma, have received considerable attention in developing the strategy. The strategy will aim to meet the needs of patients in the treatment of cancer and in improving their quality of life. Other areas of focus will include prevention, early diagnosis of cancer and facilitating patient input. The Minister, Deputy Harris, intends to publish the new strategy in the coming weeks. I would like to assure the Senator that high quality services will continue to be delivered by the multidisciplinary sarcoma teams, including the team at St. Vincent’s University Hospital.

In response to the questions raised by the Senator, unfortunately, I do not have answers at present. I will pass on her comments to the Minister and I will also inform him that Senator Devine would like him to contact her. Although I do not know precisely where he is at present, I know the Senator is looking for some kind of a meeting, so I will pass on that request. As I said, I do not have answers to the Senator's specific questions. She has answered one of them herself in that somebody has been appointed and the starting date is due shortly.