Closure of St. Luke's Radiotherapy hospital, Rathgar dublin

[TR]

All acknowledge that St. Luke's centre for radiotherapy is a one trick horse. It can only provide radiotherapy to patients.

Patients with cancer need surgery and chemotherapy also. However, the government plan to close St. Luke’s and move the radiotherapy services to St. James's hospital. This is the wrong thing to do. Why not develop chemotherapy and surgery at this location. This is an obvious solution! Ireland needs a single cancer hospital that provides all the necessary treatments. We should develop St. Luke’s to become the National Cancer Reference Centre for Ireland. Treat the hospital as the central hub to a nationwide network. Have a dedicated research facility, biobanking, clinical trials etc. all together clinicians and scientists. etc.

There should be only One hospital for treating cancer in Dublin. Currently we have the services spread out just to satisfy self interests. International practice shows that patients do better in centres of excellence, where a high volume of patients with the same disease are seen. For other diseases, other hospitals should be come the National Centre e.g. Beaumont for neurology etc.

Moving cancer services to St. James (or any other general hospital) is a mistake. Patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy are cheek by jowl with recovering alcoholics, drug addicts and other illnesses. Once cancer has spread it is fatal, therefore the setting for delivery of cancer services is important. It is distressing for patients and famlies facing death to be surrounded by the conflict and bustle that exists in general hospitals.

The current site in Rathgar is perfect setting for a National Cancer Centre, however property moguls just want to carve the site to create expensive chicken coops for people.

If we miss this opportunity to develop a single cancer centre, it will not arise again for more than a few decades. There is such strong universal support for St. Luke’s' that there is hope to sway the opinion of self interested parties at other Dublin hospitals to this noble end. It should be a national resource.

[TheBear]

<Mod>Moved to Health & Social Affairs.</Mod>

[salt]

Yes its a conspiracy by harney to sell it off to her fat cat developer friends,there got it in before thos looney people before profit headcases start.