Irreplaceable lifesaver
Furious patients say loss of top cancer specialist could cost lives
LIVES could be put in danger because a world-leading sarcoma specialist will not have her contract renewed after next week, patients’ families have warned.
Dr Alexia Bertuzzi has been working on a locum basis at St Vincent’s Hospital for a number of years and has been widely praised for her life-saving work by patients and their families from all over the country.
However, her contract is set to expire this Friday and the Dublin hospital will not be renewing it as the consultant she had been filling in for is now returning from other sabbatical duties.
The oncologist coming back to work in St Vincent’s is highly qualified and well-respected but is not a sarcoma specialist like Dr Bertuzzi.
Sarcomas are rare cancers that develop in the muscle, bone, nerves, cartilage, tendons, blood vessels and fatty and fibrous tissues. About 250 people are diagnosed with soft-tissue sarcoma in Ireland each year, while a further 35 are diagnosed with bone and joint sarcomas.
Kelli Appezzato’s husband Gino was diagnosed with this cancer last January and was told he had just six months to live. But following his referral to Dr Bertuzzi, they received an alternative diagnosis – with the expert doctor telling the couple that she had seen cases like this before and that she would be able to treat the cancer and save Gino’s life. More than 7,000 people have signed an online petition calling on St Vincent’s Hospital to continue employing Dr Bertuzzi. Former senator Professor John Crown, an oncologist at St Vincent’s, has called the decision not to retain Dr Bertuzzi ‘unwise’.
The issue has been raised by Fianna Fáil in the Dáil, with its health spokesman Billy Kelleher telling Health Minister Simon Harris of the concerns of patients’ families.
‘St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin, is in the privileged position to have a wonderful resource at a centre of excellence with the treatment of sarcoma in its oncology unit through a particular consultant who is among the few worldwide experts in the treatment of sarcoma,’ he said.
‘Patients are frightened’
He added: ‘This level of knowledge, experience and expertise of sarcoma cannot be replaced by an expert in another field of cancer... Patients are frightened for the future.’
Ms Appezzato told the Irish Daily Mail last night that Dr Bertuzzi had saved her husband Gino’s life, and that the lives of others are now in jeopardy because the specialist is about to be let go. ‘This doctor is saving lives, how can we risk losing this priceless expertise?’ Ms Appezzato asked. ‘This level of expertise can’t be replaced and we are just calling for her to be retained.’
A spokesman for St Vincent’s told the Mail last night: ‘The Ireland East Hospital Group is fully committed to safety and care of all patients across our 11 hospitals. This one position which was occupied on a temporary, part-time and locum basis comes to an end on June 30 next.
‘There will be no diminution in the care of sarcoma patients at the St Vincent’s University Hospital after June 30 and there will be no particular effect on waiting lists.’
Responding to Mr Kelleher in the Dáil, Mr Harris said: ‘I am assured by the HSE that care for patients undergoing treatment for sarcoma cancer at St Vincent’s Hospital will not be compromised in any way.’