Betty Holmes of DACC.
Donegal Action for Cancer Care has welcomed the great news that a second Breast Surgeon will now be recruited for Letterkenny Hospital.
DACC have worked very hard over a long time regarding this very important post to both support the current Breast Cancer Services and also to ensure that the Breast services are secured into the future.
“Such were our concerns that we wrote directly to Minister Varakar in January 2015 requesting an urgent meeting and we kept the pressure on till we got it on the 27th Feb at the Dept of Health” Says Betty Holmes DACC.
At that first meeting commitments were given that we have yet to find out how they are progressing.
One of those was for the recruitment of a General Surgeon and to now hear that that will also progress is good news – a year later.
“DACC have been working very hard on this and other key cancer service issues and are waiting confirmation that the follow meeting at the Dept. of Health scheduled for this week will now soon go ahead. The delay in securing this date has given us in DACC great concern but we will not let up” says Betty.
Here are the questions we took to the Dept of Health on the 27th Feb 2015 and they still give us great concern. Please read them.
Aim of meeting:
To provide an opportunity to be updated & told the truth regarding current issues, in particular our serious concerns regarding the current & long term plan for Breast Cancer Services at LGH.
1) We feel that the Breast service at Letterkenny Hospital is doomed unless someone in the organisation can come up with a coherent plan which puts flesh on the bones of all the confidence we hear.
A) What & where is the long term plan for the future of Breast Cancer services at Letterkenny General Hospital?
B) Are Galway Hospital & it’s key staff in support of the Breast Unit at Letterkenny?
C) If so what is this support?
D) Why was there a meeting in Galway on Thursday 19th Feb with the agenda
“ to plan the centralization of the referral process for the Symptomatic Breast Service” What does this mean “ centralization” ?
Does this mean it will not be in Letterkenny?
E) Are women going to be made travel to Galway to be seen?
*Why will they not be seen at the Breast Unit at Letterkenny Hospital?
*Why take patients down this long road to Galway when a consultant can travel from Galway to the hospital in Letterkenny, it just doesn’t make sense and is not in the best interest of the patients.
*Will Galway Consultants not travel to the Breast Unit at LGH? If not why not?
F) Why are women who maybe in the early stages of breast cancer no longer being referred to see a specialist in Letterkenny?.
Instead hundreds of women who receive referral letters from their GP will now have to travel to Galway. This does not make sense & again not in the best interest of the patient! ( We were told on Tuesday morning this was now 80 from waiting)
2) Why is there no consideration to having a second Breast Surgeon at Letterkenny Hospital?
3) Do each of Galway’s 5 Breast Surgeons have the required number of Breast Cancers each? 50?
How many each do they have?
4) LGH needs a minimum of two Breast Radiologist’s to function at LGH.
LGH has one fulltime who we assume will be retirement age in the next couple of years & one part who we understand had retired
That leaves in the region of a couple of years to recruit at least one Breast Radiologist and we understand there is a National shortage. Also who would come to work at LGH with a single Breast Surgeon? Post advertised for 18 months & not one applicant.
5) There are 425 men with prostate cancers & 160 women & men with bladder cancers that need to be followed up. Will the resources that are needed to treat the patients at Letterkenny Hospital be made available by whom & when?
6) Does “In-patient care will continue and strengthen its existing links with Galway University Hospital which will provide enhanced cover pending the appointment of a full time Consultant Urologist at LGH.” mean that patients will be traveling to Galway to be treated?
“To date a locum consultant general surgeon has been appointed from the 23rd Feb until the 16th April. Thereafter, a temporary general surgeon has been appointed for one year, from 16th April”. “The existing cystoscopy lists at LGH will continue along with the out-patient clinics and day surgery services. In-patient care will continue and strengthen its existing links with Galway University Hospital which will provide enhanced cover pending the appointment of a full time Consultant Urologist at LGH.”
7) Waiting lists- Will funding be provided to treat the patients who are now being referred back to waiting lists at Letterkenny Hospital? This is a result we are told that there is no money left under the HSE initiative introduced at the end of 2013 for patients who had been on a waiting list for more than 12 months, whereby they were referred from public to private hospitals for outpatient consultant appointments and treatment. Again funds being used to support private hospitals!
“The out patients wait for a routine appointment is two years two months, for an urgent appointment it is one year and four months while the recall backlog is two years.
8) How many consultants have left or have given notice of leaving LGH in the last year?
9)The great new Partnership Plan that Mr. Bill Maher talked to us about on the 31st Oct.2014.
a) Will all the many existing difficulties for the hospitals in the group be addressed before it is implemented or will it be implemented with all the existing difficulties e.g. Budget cuts, recruitment embargo, difficulties accessing hospital services, etc creating bigger problems?
b) Will it be primarily about building/ strengthening services at Galway’s University Hospital at the expense of the other hospitals in particular Letterkenny General Hospital?
It’s 111km to the nearest Iarnrod Eireann rail station in Sligo from Letterkenny General Hospital. For a patient traveling to Dublin, the nearest motorway to Letterkenny travelling via the Republic of Ireland is over 290m. Even travelling through the north our nearest motorway is 170km. Well if you head to Newry it’s a bit closer but that would make the overall trip to Dublin even longer. We Donegal people are the worst positioned geographically in the whole country and they expect our old and sick to travel huge distances to access health care.
“No other county in Ireland has to do this!
“DACC are in existence 10 years 9 months, we are totally voluntary and are not going away,” added Betty.
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