Michael Fitzmaurice: West of Ireland Denied Equal Cancer Care

I welcome the opportunity of speaking in this moment. I think that there isn't a family in Ireland that hasn't been affected. Some are belonging to them, having cancer, people recovering from it, and sadly some of their loved ones passing away. I think that when the strategy was done that we were going to have centres of excellence. A centre of excellence should be the same in Galway as it should be in Dublin, as it should be in Cork, as it should be in all parts of the country if it's a centre of excellence, and we have failed abysmally. Go to Galway and look at the lab that they have to go into to do work, and go to some of the places here in Dublin. Go to the Deputy's own hospital in Limerick and we see what happens. And it's disgraceful that parts of the country are being left behind. Think of a person in Donegal that has to go to Galway for treatment in a bus and go back up again. That's not on in this day and age. A person in the North West shouldn't be left in the West of Ireland. People are being left. And it's not the consultant's fault, and it's not the nurse's fault. They are doing the best they can. But they are being left from getting chemo, and the stats and the facts that the times that you're supposed to be getting it isn't happening. Have a look at the capital plan. What type of money was put into the West of Ireland in the capital plan in the last 10 years compared with other areas? Anyone can look at it. It's a disgrace what has happened. And I was at a meeting in Galway. This isn't a politician talking. We as politicians went to hear the experts. Professor Curran speaking, and he says, if you're in the West of Ireland, you have a lesser chance of survival than any other part of the country. That is a damning, damning statement to hear a person saying. And we listen to people day in, day out where treatment is being held up. That's not good enough. We've got to, and even in Galway, if you look at some of the, basically, they have to send some of their patients to Dublin for more expert treatment. But if we have a centre of excellence, it should be in all parts of the country. It shouldn't be in my back door no more than anyone else's. It should be in all parts of the country to help people. I do think we also need to be mindful of people. And as Deputy Collins said, and other deputies have said, it is a stressful time when a person is told that they have cancer. And an automatic medical card should be given to everybody instead of having to fight for it. And the only way you get it at the moment is basically to, if you have a terminal illness, you know, to get it urgently. And I think we need to look at that. But there's another part to this. People cannot go working. There could be a phase and thankfully a lot of people recover from cancer. And I think that needs to be said as well. But while they are going through, be it radium, be it chemotherapy, may have to have operations. It's nearly a minimum of a year and longer at times where they are out of work, where there's an income not coming in, where they have to be going to hospital appointments. And even after it, there is hospital appointments. And the funds, they don't have, they are struggling to keep going. And I think we've got to be mindful of that. I would ask any Minister to please look at this, basically the state of the whole cancer services and the hospital infrastructure. The hospital infrastructure in Galway is abysmal. We deserve better. Because it's not Galway. It's the west of Ireland. It's the northwest. It's that whole area. And it's a damn bad thing to say that Galway hospital hasn't a PET scanner. Imagine that. That a private hospital up the road has it, but the main hospital, the centre of excellence hasn't it. It is time that money and funding was put in.