Still no guarantee for cancer hub

Hopes are high radiotherapy provision will be expanded by a new satellite cancer centre at Altnagelvin but the development’s viability is dependent on “substantial and ongoing financial commitments” from both the Belfast and Dublin Governments.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness failed as surely as his Executive colleague and Health Minister Michael McGimpsey to give a firm commitment to the proposed new cancer radiotherapy centre during a debate at the Stormont Assembly.

He echoed Mr McGimpsey’s mantra that no guarantee for the centre will be given until money for the project is guaranteed and a business case is approved.

Construction was set to begin on the new facility in 2012 but Mr McGuinness said the Executive and Leinster House needed to release the funds to pay for its completion and a business case needed to be approved before the development moved forward.

Mr McGuinness told the Stormont Assembly: “The Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey, has indicated his hope that the additional radiotherapy capacity required should be made available at Altnagelvin Hospital through the development of a satellite radiotherapy centre.

“Appropriate access to safe and effective radiotherapy for local patients remains a high priority for the Health Service.”

He pointed to the benefits of such a centre to cancer patients in Northern Ireland and in Donegal saying it would offer an “opportunity for meaningful crossborder collaboration in this specialty.”

But he warned money needed to be secured to ensure its establishment.

“The proposed development at Altnagelvin represents a significant advance on that arrangement and will require substantial and ongoing financial commitments from both jurisdictions,” he said.

“An outline business case for the new development was submitted to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety by the

Western Health and Social Care Trust in April 2010.

“A number of matters of detail are still to be addressed, and the Health and Social Care Board is working with the Western Trust on those. “Until the business case has been approved and the necessary funding is in place to deliver the project, the Health Department is

unable to provide more detailed comment on the scheme.”