Cancer cuts at Mayo General Hospital criticised

‘Appalling’ cancer cuts to Mayo General Hospital criticised


Trevor Quinn

Cancer patients in Mayo, Galway and Roscommon are to lose dialysis and cancer patient transport after what has been described as ‘appalling’ further cuts by HSE West.
In a recent letter which was sent to respective general managers of Mayo General Hospital and Roscommon County Hospitals on Friday it was stipulated that the transport of dialysis and cancer patients was no longer tenable due to an ‘expended’ budget.
The memo stated, “The budget has been expended and so we won’t be in a position to finance patient transport of dialysis and cancer care services for patients within the western area. Effective from July 1.”
Fianna FΡil TD Dara Calleary said the news was “an appalling development” and insisted he would be raising the matter in the coming days in the DΡil.
The latest setback comes just days after it was announced that two operating theatres may be forced to close for two months from the end of June because of a hospital budgetary overspend.
A significant shortfall in income and an overspend in maintaining the services it provides has resulted in an extremely challenging environment for both Mayo General Hospital and Roscommon County Hospital to operate.
Commenting on the current economic difficulties Mayo General Hospital manager Charlie Meehan said that the current financial situation was “unsustainable”.
Maintaining the quality of service in the surgical and orthopaedic departments was the area which Mr Meehan said was one of the biggest budgetary headaches facing the hospital. The memo stated that “We continue to treat more patients than we are currently funded for.”