Cancer society supports centres of excellence

THE IRISH Cancer Society has reiterated its support for centres of excellence in the treatment of cancer so that the “highest possible standards” apply in all cases.

The society’s head of advocacy and communications, Kathleen O’Meara, said the standardisation and centralisation of services, with a multi-disciplinary approach and triple assessment, meant that from a woman’s point of view “the service she is getting is of high quality no matter where she goes”, with eight centres and one satellite.

She said the situation had moved from hospitals doing their own thing to everyone providing the same service. “Clearly there is an issue of distance from Sligo to Galway and Sligo to Dublin.”

The Sligo cancer service had the support of the people in the area and the relationship was one of trust. “There is no doubting the commitment of those involved in the service.”

However, she said “if the highest possible standards are to apply, then the unfortunate consequence is the closure of Sligo”.

She said in relation to the service move to Galway and the travel involved, the society “will be keeping a close eye on this and the impact on care and safety of patients and issues of hardship”.

Ms O’Meara pointed out that it had not been long since the publication of the O’Malley report about services “when there wasn’t a multi-disciplinary team” approach and when the different quality of service depended on where a patient lived.

People who trusted their service understandably questioned “why do we have to give up doing what we believe in and what works for us”. The society had been approached about concerns in the change of services in Cork from the South Infirmary to Cork University Hospital. People in Cork were also asking “why are they taking away something that is so good for us”.

She said it was important that trust be built in the eight cancer centres and the satellite. A major investment was being made and “the bottom line has to be outcomes”, she said.