Cavan hospital to play key role in oncology services

Seamus Enright

A senior figure in assisting the development of the national cancer strategy believes that Cavan General Hospital and satellite centres like it will continue to play a crucial role in providing oncology services in the coming years. “What I’ve seen in the hospital [Cavan General], particularly in recent years, is a big improvement in investment in diagnostic imaging, with MRI, CT and other scans. All of that has meant the Radiology Department there has developed nicely,” Dr Jerome Coffey, director at the National Cancer Control Programme told The Anglo-Celt last week.
He recently made a presentation to members of the Dublin North-East Regional Health Forum where he outlined details of how the coordinated national plan for screening, surgery, radiation, medical oncology is securing better outcomes in treatment and diagnosis.
Mapping from 1994-2012 shows that there were 9,036 cases of cancer diagnosed in County Cavan. Compared to the national average, this puts residents in the county at a ‘significantly low’ risk of cancer appearance.
Each year about 28,480 Irish people develop cancer. Cancer is the second most common cause of death with over 8,000 deaths from the disease reported every year.
As part of his presentation to the forum, Dr Coffey referred to cancer prevalence mapping carried out by the National Cancer Registry of Ireland, comparing the appearance of all invasive cancers on a county-by-county basis over a nine-year period between 1994-2003 to the most recent, 2004-2012.
The map showed the average number of observed cases over the nine-year period in County Cavan was 221 per year compared to the expected number of cases of 230. There was a greater differential in the follow-up study (2004-2012), with 281 observed cases compared to the average of 300 expected cases in Cavan. It meant that the county dropped the into a category of ‘significantly low’ risk of cancer appearance, whereas neighbouring counties, like Leitrim, Longford and Westmeath remained at ‘not significant’ risk.
“The change in stats is a positive change,” says Dr Coffey. With a background of higher training in major academic oncology centres in North America and the UK, Dr Coffey also worked at Cavan General twice monthly from St Luke’s and the Mater Hospitals.
“Things certainly seem to be getting better rather than worse,” he said.
Dr Coffey added: “There is nothing different in terms of Cavan compared to anywhere else in the country. Ten years ago there was the whole thing about living on the East Coast, the Sellafield effect, but there was never any hard science to back that up.”
With the Department of Health currently updating the existing National Cancer Strategy, Dr Coffey believes that the current structure of cancer service delivery, with eight primary centres located around Ireland, will remain. As part of that, Cavan General will continue to play a key role in providing oncology services to patients in the region.
“Half the country asks why don’t we have a cancer centre? But it’s hard to do that because you’re basically duplicating what’s already available in the nearest centre,” he said.
Dr Coffey explains that the system adopted in the past caused problems both clinically and in the quality of the service delivered to patients. Now, he says, no matter where a patient is in the country their travel time to a primary cancer centre is a short one and treatment is delivered soon after diagnosis. He also noted the investment in oncology services such as more machines in centres such as Beaumont and St James’. “Obviously the Cavan patients who come to Dublin, they have a choice of which centre they go to. If they need accommodation they stay at The Lodge at St Luke’s, funded by the Friends of St Luke’s,” he said.