Thank you, Sir, for allowing me raise this important and sensitive matter. I wish to address the unsatisfactory conditions under which the staff and patients of St. Luke's Hospital have been forced to operate during the past few weeks. The hospital provides radiation therapy to two thirds of our nation's cancer patients. Until today the hospital's sole simulator — the instrument that designs the precise radiation treatment for patients — had been broken for two and a half weeks. The machine is out of date and rather than have it replaced, new machinery had simply been added to keep it up to date and operational. As a result, the machine is now so hybridised that a specialist from Germany had to be called in to fix it. This is a case of lack of foresight snowballing into a crisis. If St. Luke's had initially been provided with the funding to purchase an up-to-date machine, when the present simulator started to give trouble, repairs could have been handled in a less expensive and time consuming fashion.
The situation at St. Luke's was further compounded by the simultaneous breakdown of two of the three linear accelerators, which provide the bulk of the treatment in radiotherapy. As a result the hospital on which we rely to treat the majority of our cancer patients had been unable to design precise treatment and deliver it to those patients.
Patients have been forced to wait for radiotherapy, either being sent back home or remaining in the hospital for an extended period, in many cases, resorting to bed and breakfast and hotel accommodation at considerable expense to themselves and their families or, alternatively, staying with family friends in Dublin. Seventeen people were flown to Cork Regional Hospital last weekend in an attempt to reduce the backlog of patients waiting for treatment.
Staff have had to resort to working on a triage basis, accommodating those patients in greatest need first and leaving less advanced cases to wait. This is ludicrous. Cancer requires early treatment to improve the chances of success in combating this insidious disease. That such treatment should be handled on a triage basis in a society with adequate resources should be unthinkable, yet, it is a reality.
Lacking the appropriate equipment the staff have been compelled to use laborious time-consuming and outdated methods to provide radiotherapy. Many staff members have been working double shifts, administering treatment until midnight. They are to be commended and I compliment them on their heroic efforts to cope with this unacceptable situation. Fortunately, the simulator is functioning once again and the two linear accelerators will be operational within a week. The brunt of the crisis has passed but there is still a backlog of patients awaiting treatment. The demands upon staff and patients have not decreased.
I understand that St. Luke's was informed today that £1.9 million is to be made available to build two new rooms to accommodate two new linear accelerators. It will also obtain a new simulator in September. This is progress but unfortunately the benefits will not be seen for several months.
This urgent matter is being dealt with, but in a far from satisfactory fashion. An exhausted, demoralised hospital staff has had to work overtime using inefficient methods to provide treatment for which a huge number of patients have been forced to wait. How did this crisis come about? It should not take a crisis to make us understand that the hospital which is the primary provider of cancer treatment should be adequately equipped with up-to-date functioning equipment. This should not be an ideal which we should strive to achieve, it should be the reality. No amount of delayed funding can justify the frustration, demoralisation, anxiety and inconvenience suffered by the staff and patients of St. Lukes's Hospital during the past few weeks.
This matter was brought to my attention by one of my constituents, one of the many cancer patients forced to wait for treatment. This constituent is a member of the VHI and a private patient. If she is unable to obtain treatment, what about medical card holders? How are their cases being handled? Are they being forced to wait longer than private patients? It is frightening to think that any cancer patient has to wait any length of time for treatment.
The implications of this crisis at St. Luke's are disturbing. One cannot but question our own priorities and our sympathy for those suffering from cancer.
