The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has moved to end the controversy over delays in cancer treatment in the west by approving six specialist posts at University College Hospital, Galway.
Mr Martin made the announcement last night on the eve of his visit to Galway.
He said he had approved recruitment of "key medical and scientific staff" for the radiotherapy unit at University College Hospital, Galway.
The six posts approved represent about a third of the senior medical and scientific staff sought by the Western Health Board for the unit, which is due to be completed in July. They include three senior physicists, a senior engineer, a radiation oncologist and a radiation therapist. The approvals mean there will be a delay of up to a year in commissioning the radiotherapy unit.
The Minister said the appointments were "now necessary to support the on-going development of the radiotherapy unit and the essential commissioning of radiotherapy equipment that is on order". He said the year's cost of these posts was over €600,000, and additional resources would be made available to the Western Health Board. The Minister said "discussions will continue" between his Department and the health board on planning and resourcing of the next phase of the development.
The approvals were welcomed last night by the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Frank Fahey, who said he had been in discussions with the Minister for the last 12 months to ensure that the senior staff positions would be approved without delay. "I am confident that radiotherapy will begin in Galway in 2004," Mr Fahey said.
Medical sources at the hospital said that while the posts were very welcome, they would not be in place in time for July when the unit was built. The posts could take until next year to fill, due to the bureaucratic recruitment system within the health service, the sources said. The new staff will then need 9 months of testing and pre-commissioning work, before patients can be treated.
When commissioned, the radiotherapy unit will cut out the arduous journey to Dublin for treatment which cancer patients on the western seaboard currently have to endure. The delay in approving posts by the Department of Health has put back the estimated date for treating patients to 2006.
