Professor Tom Keane, director of the National Cancer Control Programme, has pledged his support to Mayo TD Beverley Flynn for the provision of the planned new €7m oncology unit at Mayo General Hospital.
Professor Keane told the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: “In Castlebar, there is a group of nurses who are expert in chemotherapy administration and who need nothing more than a better facility – something which I am happy to support.”
The professor was replying to a query from Deputy Flynn, who told the committee that the oncology services at Mayo General were being delivered in cramped unsuitable conditions and that staff needed better facilities than were at present available to them. The Fianna Fáil deputy told Professor Keane that she had recently been given an assurance by Brendan Drumm that a new purpose built oncology unit was a priority for Mayo General Hospital and that funding would be provided out of capital allocations.
Dep Flynn welcomed Professor Keane’s supportive comments and said that: “The staff are delivering a first rate service in difficult circumstances to hundreds of Mayo patients week after week. Both they and their patients deserve the new, purpose built facility which is being proposed.”
