Consultants are urging the public to take to the streets to agitate for a state-of-the-art oncology centre to replace the day ward where 75 cancer patients a day are forced to endure cramped and uncomfortable conditions in a prefab.

Campaign spokesman Professor Paul Donnellan said the Oncology Day Ward is so inefficient that people battling the disease have to wait all day for a treatment that lasts just 20 minutes despite staff working “their socks off”.

He likened it to ‘giving the Rolls Royce treatment in a Lada’.

“We have access to most of the proven, highly effective and very expensive treatments – we’re just giving it in a hay barn,” he exclaimed.

The day ward is in a pre-fabricated structure which cannot accommodate the volume of patients attending: there is no parking; no proper waiting area; uncomfortable chairs; no dining area; no dietitian, physiotherapy or supportive treatment rooms; no consultant clinical review rooms and no room for clinical trial activity.

About 25 patients receive intravenous systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) at the day ward every day.

A purpose-built oncology centre, which would cost between €10 million and €50 million, would have a ‘welcome atrium’ where patients would be greeted by staff and checked in for a review, blood test or treatment.

Patients receiving chemotherapy, or any other form of systemic anti-cancer therapy such as Immunotherapy, would be directed to the Anti-Cancer Therapy Suite.

Complementary therapies, psychological supports, social work, dietitian, and other ancillary services would be available on site.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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