Nuala Nolan, Galway : Centres of excellence

Issued : Wednesday 19 December, 2007

 

Roisin Shortall TD, Pat rabbitte TD and Joan O'Sullivan TD joining women as they demand better cancer services.

It is intriguing to hear Government ministers talk about centres of excellence in relation to breast cancer. Obviously men have a different idea of centres ofexcellence than women when it comes to breast cancer.There is no comparison between the way the public patient and the private patient are treated. The public patient is sent by her GP for a mammogram to the nearestpublic hospital, in this case the future centre of excellence NUIGH, or GalwayUniversity Hospital. After waiting for a week or two, the patient gets a 9amappointment on a particular date, as do about 20 other women who live as farapart as the Aran Islands to Roscommon. She takes a number and waits for a half hour in the downstairs lobby and then is told to go upstairs for another wait.

Even though you are referred by a competent GP, you still have to be assessed by a consultant with a number of junior doctors and medical students in tow. It is disconcerting for most older women to lie there on a bed half-naked before such a team. A letter is sent to the patient a week later to attend the hospital for mammogram. And on and on it goes.

On the other hand, a private patient is referred by her GP to a private hospital for a mammogram.She gets the appointment within days. When she arrives at the hospital she goes directly to the x-ray department. She will get the results within days. If she has even five minutes wait in the private hospital she will be sitting in a bright airy room with up-to-date magazines to read. Having a relative with her would be encouraged.

I have some experience of centres of excellence in cancer care. In the London Hospital, Ontario, patients are treated with great dignity. The waiting room isbright and airy. The hospital has the finest cancer specialists and, as Canada has a universal health system, every patient gets the same care. Patients who need to travel more that 40km for cancer treatments are provided with lodgings at the Themeswood Lodge free of charge.
We have a long way to go.

NUALA NOLAN
BOWLING GREEN, GALWAY