Devins calls for clarification on cancer services after leaked letter

FORMER JUNIOR health minister Jimmy Devins yesterday called for “urgent clarification” after revelations that the general manager of Galway University Hospital (GUH) warned the HSE as recently as last Tuesday that enforced cutbacks would prevent the hospital from functioning as one of the eight cancer care centres of excellence.

Campaigners in Sligo who have spent close to two years fighting the proposed transfer  of the local breast cancer unit to Galway also expressed horror at the scenario spelled out by Bridget Howley,head of GUH, in a letter headed “re revised break-even plan” which was dated June 9th.

While the HSE insisted yesterday that nothing  in the leaked document had been agreed and that cost-cutting measures would not impact on cancer services, the Save Sligo Cancer Services Group said the truth had now been exposed. Spokesman Killian McLoughin said the HSE was attempting to “spin its way out of” the revelations but the bottom line was that the hospital itself was aware that it would not be able to provide cancer services.

Mr McLoughlin said it was “absolute nonsense” for the HSE to suggest that funding for cancer services was ring-fenced, when the head of the hospital had spelled out very clearly two days ago that GUH would “no longer be able to function as one of the eight designated cancer centres” and that a further €6 million cut in its budget would lead to “reduced access to complex specialist and cancer surgery” for the region.

As Sligo-based consultant Tim Hanrahan expressed alarm at the revelations,  Mr McLaughlin added: “This is what we have been saying all along. . .The HSE can continue to bluff – the bottom line is people will die because someone will have to wait for surgery or for care.”

He urged the HSE to “stop right now”, admit the problems in Galway and abandon plans to transfer the Sligo unit given the consensus that a quality service already existed there.

Former junior health minister and Sligo north Leitrim TD Jimmy Devins called for “immediate  clarification”. He said he had not seen the letter from the hospital general manager but he added that if its authenticity was established there would be severe implications for the future of Galway as a centre of excellence.

Mr Hanrahan, a consultant who specialises in breast surgery,described the development as “disappointing” but he said the situation spelled out by Ms Howley reflected what was happening all over the country.

“It is very worrying and it mirrors what is happening on the ground where services are being stretched.”

Mr Hanrahan said the leaked letter just reinforced his worries.

“It is hard to take, especially when we read about so much being spent on bonuses and on reviews and reports,” said the consultant.

He said staff at the breast cancer unit in Sligo had still not been informed when the transfer would take place, but “ironically we are busier than ever and our figures are actually up on this time last year”.

Chris Kane, regional co-ordinator for the HSE’s Western Hospital Group, the recipient of Tuesday’s letter from Ms Howley, insisted yesterday that “there were absolutely no plans to curtail cancer services” in Galway, and that the centre of excellence for cancer treatment at GUH was going ahead.

She said the leaked letter was a “discussion paper only”, and added “it was never agreed”.