‘Patients are going to die’ due to cancer waiting times in Donegal
Leukemia sufferer Roseena Doherty (Toner), who lives in Clonmany, said they need a proper unit in Letterkenny and to put a plan in place, which needs to be shared with the public 'because people are going to die that could have possibly lived'
Cancer treatment waiting times at Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) will lead to deaths, it has been warned.
Inishowen patient Roseena Doherty (Toner) has described the facilities as “Third World” and warns that “patients are going to die who could have possibly lived if they had gotten their treatment on time.”
Patients waiting on their first chemotherapy appointment at Letterkenny face an average wait time of 22 working days. HSE guidelines recommend treatment within 15 working days. Less than a third (31%) of patients are treated in this timeframe at LUH.
Leukemia sufferer Roseena, who lives in Clonmany, said they need a proper unit in Letterkenny and to put a plan in place, which needs to be shared with the public “to give them a bit of hope and faith back in the hospital because people are going to die that could have possibly lived.”
“We need a standalone cancer unit by itself where everything is in the one building," she said. "At the moment, the haematology and oncology ward is above A&E, while the cancer day ward is in a separate unit, it is scattered all over the hospital. I feel like everything needs to be in one place.”
Roseena, who has been in remission for over two years, finds it frustrating that no one is listening to the needs of the patients.
“When I bring these issues up to councillors they say they are looking into it but they have been looking into it for 20 years and haven't done enough," she said. "They just fob people off.”
Figures were revealed to Milford Councillor Declan Meehan at the Regional Health Forum West general meeting that Letterkenny cancer patients must wait almost 50% longer than all patients in Mayo.
Key Performance Indicators are met for 62% of patients at Galway University Hospital, 76% at Portiuncula University Hospital, and 78% at Sligo University Hospital.
LUH says it recently added four more treatment bays as an extension to the day ward on the in-patient ward, which holds eleven chemotherapy chairs. Roseena, who was diagnosed in June 2021, disagrees with this after first attending the hospital as a cancer patient in the summer of 2022.
Prior to attending Letterkenny, she was seen in Galway before getting a bone marrow transplant in St James' Hospital in Dublin. Now over two years in remission, Roseena describes the difference between Dublin and Galway to LUH as "enormous”.
“I was sent to Galway because they didn't have the Intensive Care Unit facilities that would treat me in LUH with the severe treatment I was receiving,” Rosenna added. “Then when I came out of there I had to go to Dublin to St James’ to get a bone marrow transplant which is the only hospital in Ireland that does that procedure.”
When Roseena attended Galway University Hospital, they had 25 patient units for blood cancers, while the oncology was in a different section. In comparison, Letterkenny hematology and oncology departments have 13 beds. Last summer it was increased to a 24-bed ward.
"Before that, there were cancer patients scattered all over the hospital which was shocking," added Roseena.
She feels there will have to be a protest if a solution isn't found urgently: "We aren't going to sit down and be quiet, the people in Donegal are too polite. Nobody wants to complain. I sat in that cancer unit and saw loads of different people who are grateful they got their treatment like me. We need to get over this being grateful for things. We are never going to get anywhere if we keep being too polite.
“If Roseena is standing outside Letterkenny Hospital with a placard and won't go home, then they will have to do something. If you have to embarrass these people into helping you, so be it,” she adds.
While the figures received by Councillor Meehan are stark, Roseena believes the bigger issue is the geographical location that Letterkenny is taking in.
“They say that Sligo, Mayo and Galway have their numbers in order but they likely have a smaller area to cover because they are all so close together. Letterkenny has too big an area with too small a service,” she said.
While a new cancer centre of excellence in Galway was opened late last year, Roseena says it is shocking patients are made to travel so far.
“No smart person has looked at a map of Ireland, there's a big distance from Galway to Malin Head and a lot of sick people in between. In my opinion, the cancer services in Letterkenny are slowly being pushed out the door.”
Roseena says that the staff in LUH are excellent but there aren’t enough on duty. She says she doesn't believe the notion that new staff won't join because of the location of Donegal.
"There is plenty in Donegal on offer, from cafes to restaurants, pubs and public transport," she concluded. "So I don't buy that.”