Madam, – The HEALTHplus Cancer Special (April 5th) was most timely.
A friend of mine, a prominent Oxford cancer surgeon told me that breast cancer services were provided in all large English hospitals. “Centre of excellence” was a term which applied only to a hospital providing breast reconstruction.
Sligo was included in Prof Niall O’Higgins’s plan for the cancer services in Ireland. Prof Tom Keane had no choice in the matter he was brought here to implement then Minister for Health Mary Harney’s decision to establish eight centres of excellence excluding Sligo.
The decision was a disaster for Sligo where all the breast cancer services were in place except radiotherapy. Now any woman not eligible for Breast Check has to travel to Galway or Dublin for a mammogram.
One of my patients told me today how ill she felt travelling to Galway for radiotherapy treatment in spite of the kindness of the radiotherapist there, Dr Maeve Pomeroy. My patient shuddered at the thought of any future patient from Sligo having to travel to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry as a possible alternative.
The people of Sligo have not given up. A large notice in this city of Sligo is counting down the first 100 days of New Government. – Yours, etc,