Cancer in a Cold Climate
Page 16
I refer to the reason there has been such an increase in the rate of cancer, which is a matter that must be examined constantly. In some cases, it is because people, who are living longer, now live long enough to get cancer. At the same time however, one must consider both the environment and environmental health, as well as what actually is causing cancer. As I stated, holistic health pertains to all aspects of health and not simply to treating illness when it has developed. It is not about allowing or even encouraging people to live unhealthy lifestyles and then trying to patch them up when unfortunately they become ill. It should be about living as healthy a lifestyle as possible in order that one avoids the diseases in the first place.
Senator Mary M. White (FF): I welcome the Minister of State. St. Luke’s Hospital, Rathgar, which has cared for patients for more than 50 years, has a reputation for excellence of treatment and devoted care of patients that is exceptional. The Bill before Members provides for the dissolution of the board, which then will become the responsibility of the HSE and specifically of the national cancer control programme. It is important to note that St. Luke’s will continue to provide specialist radiotherapy and related services at Rathgar for the next four to five years until the planned facilities at St. James’s and Beaumont hospitals come on-stream fully.I welcome the significant provision in the Bill that the final decision on the long-term use of the beautiful and tranquil site will lie with the Minister and that the intention is to retain it for health purposes. I strongly advocate its use for support services for cancer patients in the future. I am aware that the board of the hospital and the Friends of St. Luke’s Hospital will present a proposal on these lines to the Minister in the near future.I pay tribute to the board, management and staff of St. Luke’s. They and their predecessors can be proud of the service and ethos they built up over the years. All those staff will continue to contribute their expertise and service either at St. Luke’s or at the other patients’ centres in Dublin in the future. I also wish to acknowledge the passionate commitment of Mr. Joe Guilfoyle from County Waterford and the commitment of the patient support group led by him. In addition, I commend the work of the Friends of St. Luke’s Hospital in mobilising funds and support for the hospital in every parish in Ireland. I acknowledge the role of the current chairman, Peter Byers, and his predecessor, David O’Halloran. It is fitting that the new radiation oncology network in Dublin involving St. James’s and Beaumont hospitals is called the St. Luke’s radiation oncology network.Finally, I wish to put on record that my husband, Padraic White, was the chairman of the board of St. Luke’s for the past ten years and I commend him on his dedication and his belief in the ethos and staff of St. Luke’s, who provided an oasis for those with cancer in Ireland.
Senator Pearse Doherty (SF): Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Despite the comments by a previous speaker to the effect that it was great to have cross-party support on some legislation, that Member was misguided because my party and I completely reject this legislation.As I was walking into the Chamber to give my Second Stage speech, I met two gentlemen from my parish who are friends of mine and my family for many years. One is a next door neighbour and the other is from the same townland. They told me they were present to express their concerns regarding the passage of this Bill through the Seanad. They mentioned that both of them were availing of the services at St. Luke’s and are undergoing treatment there at present. The decision of patients of St. Luke’s Hospital to come into Leinster House today demonstrates their affinity and gra for that hospital. They had nothing but praise for the service provided there. This Bill provides for the discontinuation of such services for cancer patients and as such constitutes an attack upon the sick. Therefore, my support and that of my party will not be forthcoming. The Bill principally deals with the discontinuation of services at St. Luke’s Hospital for cancer. As previously noted, more than 180,000 people have signed a petition to the Dáil and Seanad appealing to Members as representatives and as the jury in this case to vote against this cruel and drastic legislation. This Bill is little more than an attack on the sick. One hears hear much about the Government’s plans regarding centres of excellence. However, although St. Luke’s has been a centre of excellence for many years, the Government, in a cynical and cruel move, wishes to close it in the future. Similar scenarios have arisen in my native county, in which two community hospitals, one of which also is a nursing home, are under threat of immediate closure by the HSE and the Government. That is simply one example of what the Government is doing to health services. As I noted earlier, many people from County Donegal have a strong affinity with St. Luke’s and either have been treated there or have had loved ones treated there. No one to whom I have had the chance to talk has had anything but praise for the services that were made available to them while in St. Luke’s. I make this point in respect of people from my parish who must travel for four and a half hours to get to St. Luke’s and who understand the services that are available there. However, they also understand that County Donegal and the north west have been completely left out of the radiation oncology plan proposed by the Minister for Health and Children and the HSE in which it is proposed that no centre of excellence will be situated north of a line from Dublin to Galway. That is nothing short of a scandal and the decision must be revisited. Health care services across the State are in crisis. The HSE has been exposed many times as being grossly incompetent and unfit to run a health service. The Government tries to hide behind it, but central to the HSE’s failure is the disastrous health policy of the Government. The experience of St. Luke’s Hospital is replicated around the country. The Government wishes to downgrade or close hospitals. It is following a policy of over-centralisation and the privatisation of services. This policy rewards the private health care sector with land on public hospital sites and tax breaks to develop private for-profit hospitals. At the same time the Government wishes to close long-standing, tried and trusted facilities such as those provided in St. Luke’s Hospital. Across the country cancer patients have been denied life-saving opportunities because successive Governments have failed to provide the radiation oncology facilities required. The Government has had ample time and the benefit of a booming economy to plan and budget for the provision of radiotherapy centres across the country. The State could and should have taken the lead and provided these centres as public facilities open to all on the basis of need alone. Instead the Government committed itself to entering public private partnerships to deliver them. Very few Members are unaffected by cancer. Withdrawing services from St. Luke’s Hospital is little more than an attack on people who are suffering. This proposal made by the Government to close St. Luke’s Hospital as a cancer centre by 2014 should be opposed by everyone who believes people have a right to decent health care. I will vote against the Bill and urge everyone who referred to the 180,000 people who had petitioned them to listen to their voices, including of those who have survived cancer and been treated in St. Luke’s Hospital and who are pleading with us not to pass the legislation and to reject the Bill outright. I urge Senators to join me in doing so today.
Senator Mark Dearey (Green): I have a particular interest in this issue. I do not like to drag my good wife into the debate, but she has worked in St. Luke’s Hospital and the cancer centre in Belfast as a senior radiation therapist. As such, she has a particular insight into the issues involved. I asked her the other night whether patients from County Donegal being treated in the cancer centre in Belfast received enhanced treatment as compared to the excellent treatment they had received during the years in St. Luke’s Hospital. She was in absolutely no doubt that the clinical setting was critical when it came to cancer treatment and that placing a cancer treatment centre in the heart of a large hospital, with all disciplines and specialisms on-site, would undoubtedly result in better outcomes for patients. To characterise the move as an attack on the sick is convenient sloganeering, but it is not factually correct. That comes from my own resident expert. I recognise the
fantastic work done in St. Luke’s Hospital and also the fact that better practices should be pursued.
Deputy Aine Brady (FF): Despite the Minister’s assurances on the future of St. Luke’s Hospital, concerns are still appearing. Accordingly, the Minister introduced an amendment, which has since been accepted, to ensure the hospital will be used for health care purposes by the HSE, that is, health and personal social services in accordance with the Health Act 2004. The Minister was happy to table this amendment in a bid to bring certainty to her position as outlined and to respond to the concerns expressed. The St. Luke’s network model will provide a single clinical governance and management structure across the eastern region to deliver a service to patients in line with best international standards. This also means a significant increase in radiotherapy capacity in the public system in Dublin and the east, with 12 instead of eight linear accelerators. Further development under phase 2 of the national plan for radiation oncology will see capacity increase further to meet future needs.On the Bill’s enactment, staff at St. Luke’s Hospital will become HSE staff and, therefore, will be able to work across the hospitals in the network under this governance structure. The network’s establishment and the involvement of St. Luke’s Hospital’s staff in all three centres from the beginning will enable the new centres to reflect the successful patient-centric model that the hospital represents.
Question put: “That the Bill be now read a Second Time.”
Senator Pearse Doherty: Vótáil.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach: The question has been put and Senator Doherty has called for a division of the House. However, as he is unable to provide a second teller, the division cannot proceed.
Question declared carried.
PARTY LOYALTY V PATIENT WELFARE
We had five days to lobby the Seanad which would take the third stage debate on 6 July. On occasion, the Seanad has rejected bills and we wondered given the independent senators, could we win here. We knew that Labour and Fine Gael would again introduce the amendments that had been narrowly defeated in the Dáil.
We knew that our supporters were working hard as we received many requests for guidance on drafting letters.
We knew that one Fianna Fail Senator would not be there, the controversial Ivor Callely, a former Junior Health minister. I received this reply to my email:
Hi Enid
I acknowledge your mail and appreciate content of same. I am very supportive of St Luke’s and support a lot of the views you expressed. When I was in a position to stop the closure of very worthy health facilities, I am pleased to indicate that I did so, like in Sir Patrick Dunne’s , Baggot Street Hosp, Meath Hosp, St Joseph’s Hosp and much more, but you will get the drift, I very much support all health services facilities and Satellite facilities play a fundamental role in delivery of service.
I regret that I will be overseas on international + national business next Tuesday but I have already raised St Luke’s with the Minister and intend to pursue same.
Regards
Ivor
From: “Enid O’Dowd”
Sent: 02/07/2010 17:57 CET
To: Ivor Callely
Subject: St Luke’s Cancer Hospital
Dear Senator Callely
You’ve been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. I ‘m writing to ask that you do something that will make news for the right reasons.
I want you to support the Labour amendment to the Heath (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill to be debated next week. If you do this, you will save St Luke’s Cancer Hospital but you will upset Minister Harney who has consistently refused to listen to patients and their families.
Yours sincerely
Enid O’Dowd
Before the debate started a senator who I could not identify, spotted writer Ulick O’Connor sitting next to me and came up to greet him. I gathered from his brief conversation with Ulick that he was from Kerry. I asked him if he would be supporting the amendment to save St Luke’s and said he must have received many emails. Whereupon he said, in all seriousness, ‘we don’t read emails, you know.’
Senator Frances Fitzgerald moved the Fine Gael amendment which had been defeated in the Dáil. She referred to a story that had broken that morning about the appalling treatment and subsequent death of a cancer patient in Galway, in a supposed centre of excellence.
For Labour, former midwife Phil Prendergast, moved the amendment we preferred as it would restrict the future use of St Luke’s for cancer services to public patients.
Speakers spoke of the volume of emails and letters received calling for St Luke’s to be saved.
Fine Gael Senator Nicky McFadden made an interesting observation. She asked for all-party consensus and said ‘in that context, I am aware that some colleagues on the Government side of the House share my view that St. Luke’s should be retained in its present form in order that its staff can care, in a compassionate manner, for people who are sick.’
Who were those government senators who did not have the courage to put patients before party?
Many spoke but only one from the government, Fianna Fail spokesperson on Health Geraldine Feeney. There was no sign of any other government senators. In the course of the debate two junior health ministers, Barry Andrews and Aine Brady entered the Chamber.
Wrapping up the debate Junior Minister Barry Andrews said, ‘there is always a fear of change. I do not mean to diminish, qualify or classify it as some kind of psychological frailty but this process will be carried out over five years.’
Why is change always a good thing? Minister Andrews made it clear the government would not accept the amendments.
He also said that there would be no saving to the exchequer by closing Luke’s; that the decision to close St Luke’s was not about money. It was he said, ‘informed by clinical advice in 2003.’ Interesting that he put that on record. Many people think, in the context of health service cutbacks and bed closures that the decision to close St Luke’s is about saving money.
So the bells tolled and in came the Fianna Fail and Green senators. As in the Dáil, the amendments were lost by four votes.
After these votes, Labour Senator Ivana Bacik commented that the Bill was being rushed ‘through with what some would describe as unseeming haste, given that it was taken in the Dáil in the middle of last week and brought straight to the Seanad.’ She continued, ‘we are rushing through Committee and Remaining Stages today, yet the Government gave an assurance that St Luke’s Hospital would remain in operation until 2014, or early 2015, according to the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews. It is an odd or an irrational approach to take to what has been described as a hospital with an excellent reputation and which provides an excellent standard of service and treatment for patients. All we have managed to get is a respite for the hospital, rather than any proper assurance in respect of its prolonged existence. As I said, this is just a stay of execution and is simply not good enough.’