Reopening Sligo cancer unit would cost €2.5m

THE ANNUAL cost of re-opening the breast cancer unit at Sligo General Hospital (SGH) would be more than €2.5 million a year, according to a HSE-approved report.

The report, unveiled by Junior Minister John Perry, at a stormy press conference in Sligo last Friday, also revealed that since the unit closed, a “significant percentage” of patients in the hospital’s catchment area had opted to have surgery in Dublin rather than Galway.

The “briefing document”, commissioned by SGH management on the request of Mr Perry, said patients were opting to have breast investigations and surgery at different centres in Dublin and were then returning for oncology services in Sligo “resulting in a fragmented service”. Some patients were also using the Letterkenny centre.

Symptomatic breast cancer services at SGH were transferred to University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) in August 2009 as part of the National Cancer Control Programme.

Mr Perry, Fine Gael TD for Sligo-North Leitrim, came under fire last week after he admitted that, contrary to what he had promised, the unit would not reopen within 100 days of the new Government taking office.

Mr Perry told the press briefing that the mammography services would resume in Sligo in the last quarter of this year and that a second medical oncologist would also be appointed. Furious campaigners dismissed the announcement as a “whitewash”.

Mr Perry insisted he had not wasted time during that period and had got a report outlining “true and factual information” about SGH, such as staffing requirements if the services resume.

He had also sought information on which cancer centres were being used by patients from the catchment area, since the local unit closed.

The report shows that reopening the unit would cost almost €1.2 million in staffing costs (including more than €239,000 for a consultant surgeon and €237,000 for a consultant radiologist). The additional oncology drugs required would cost €1.2 million, while IT and other costs would bring the total bill to €2.5 million a year .

The report, which was approved by the regional director of HSE West, confirmed that after the transfer, follow-up surveillance mammography was to be provided in Sligo, on an outreach basis from UCHG. However, because of the staffing moratorium, staff had not been recruited to provide this service, so patients have had to travel to Galway for follow-up mammograms.

The report detailed the distances and travel times involved for patients who, for example, have to travel 87 miles from Sligo to UCHG (a journey of three hours) or 127 miles from Donegal town (three hours and 45 minutes).

The Save Our Cancer Services group called on Government members in the constituency to resign to “allow the people of this region to once again register, through the ballot box, their dissatisfaction with being repeatedly treated like second-class citizens”.