Should be psycho-cancer support at Sligo Hospital
Madam Editor,
Dr. Paul D’Alton head of the Department of Psycho-oncology at St. Vincent’s University Hospital Dublin, and former President of the Psychological Society of Ireland, said on the Comment page (Irish Independent July 19) that we must help patients deal with the brutal emotional toll of cancer.
He stated further that our eight cancer centres are failing some the 150,000 people who are cancer survivors - because of improved cancer treatments - by not providing the comprehensive cancer care required to address the psychological consequences of this brutal illness.
He said there are many fantastic voluntary community cancer support centres across the country providing support, but we are asking way too much of them in the current system, where there is not enough psychological care provided in our eight cancer centres.
We need a national plan for the psychological treatment of cancer Dr. D’Alton said.
This despite the fact that it has been long accepted by the medical profession that the psychological treatment of cancer patients is an integral part of cancer care and recovery. Of the eight cancer centres of ex- cellence in this country - none of them north of a Dublin-Galway line - yet only two of these provide psychological support to cancer patients and their families, and both of these hospitals are located in our capital city.
There should be a cancer centre of excellence in the NorthWest based at Sligo University Hospital providing psycho-oncology support. These huge inequalities must be addressed as a matter of urgency, in the new 2017-2026 National Cancer Strategy launched recently by the Minister for Health Mr. Simon Harris.
In the light of the failure of successive governments to pro- vide adequate psycho-oncology care for cancer patients and their families over many years, let us hope that the new strategy is the blueprint for a much more comprehensive and equitable cancer services programme, in the months and years ahead.
Tom Towey, Cloonacool, Co. Sligo.