Professor Keane says "number of designated centres is immaterial".

Professor Tom Keane said in a presentation to the Irish College of General Practioners in Galway last week-end that the number of designated cancer care centres was "immaterial". According to Professor Keane "we could have agreed to four, six or eight centres, - in many ways the number of designated centres is immaterial". I find this statement amazing, that the number of centres is immaterial, if that's the case - why can we not have a centre of excellence in Sligo? What is the rationale for not having a centre North of a line from Dublin to Galway? In the carefully choreographed timing of his interview designed I have no doubt to take some of the steam out of the motion before Dail Eireann this week, he raises questions about Sligo ever having been chosen as a centre. Obviously, he has not read the Report of the sub group to the National Cancer Forum on the development of services for symptomatic breast disease published in 2000 by Professor Niall O'Higgins and others which states "if the population of Sligo, Leitrim, West Cavan and part of Mayo are incorporated, it is estimated that the population would be adequate to provide a sufficient volume of patients. Therefore it is recommended that a Breast Unit be established in Sligo serving these areas."

This flies directly in the face of what Professor Keane is saying about Sligo not being chosen, Sligo was chosen, an excellent breast care unit was established and according to Professor Keane a decision which he describes as "immaterial" was taken to close it. In fact the decision to close it may be immaterial to Professor Keane but not to Sligo and the North West Region. It is worth noting that it is certainly not immaterial to the private operators who will provide cancer services in co-located private hospitals and perhaps this more than anything else was the rationale for the disgraceful decision not to locate a centre of excellence North of a line from Dublin to Galway.