HSE accused of dismantling South Infirmary centre

THE HSE is dismantling a breast cancer centre of excellence at the South Infirmary in Cork “with no guarantee that an equal service will be provided at Cork University Hospital” (CUH), it has been claimed.

Local TDs have claimed that transferring the high-standard service is unnecessary and costly, while Cork city GP representative Dr Andrew Lyne said they had written to Minister for Health Mary Harney and “basically she is washing her hands of it”.

He added that Prof Tom Keane of the National Cancer Care Control Programme (NCCP) had “made no attempt to address the concerns we’ve raised”.

However, the NCCP said it was satisfied that at all levels it had met “and continues to meet and correspond with all medical personnel in the catchment area of CUH, including GPs”, one of whom was on the project team overseeing the CUH development.

It also stressed that while the South Infirmary has been delivering a breast cancer service, CUH and all eight designated centres were developing services for all cancers.

Cork North Central TD Kathleen Lynch said in Cork “we have a centre of excellence and they want to dismantle it”.

The South Infirmary unit had developed breast cancer expertise over 19 years. “It hits all Hiqa’s boxes as a centre of excellence.”

She said a Breastcheck centre was specifically built two years ago beside the South Infirmary at a cost of €6 million, and they would have to build a new Breastcheck centre at CUH, which could take a further two years.

Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central) said “the breast cancer service should remain at South Infirmary and be networked to CUH”.

Dr Lyne said South Infirmary had three specialist consultants, dealt with 400 cases a year and was the second largest centre in the State.

The Irish College of General Practitioners’ (ICGP) representative for Cork city GPs added that the service was consultant delivered “and that is not the norm that you will always see the consultant”.

He added that it was intended that aftercare would be provided through GPs, even though it was done through consultants at the South Infirmary. This was a national issue for all centres, he said, but there had been no discussions with the ICGP on this.

The GP also pointed out that “I have received no reassurances from the South Infirmary consultants about the move”, which is now targeted for the end of the year. Dr Lyne said the South Infirmary met all the criteria for a centre of excellence, “but it hasn’t been achieved to date in Cork University Hospital”.

Rejecting the claim, the NCCP statement said: “CUH currently meets and exceeds all Hiqa access standards.

“The hospital has a 100 per cent compliance rate with regard to urgent cases – all urgent cases are seen within two weeks.”

Breast cancer cases had successfully transferred from Tralee to CUH. It said that as part of the €5.75 million investment in the cancer centre in CUH, a dedicated breast unit was being developed and “more than €1.5 million is being invested in pathology services at the hospital”.