The Government should introduce a centralised scheme to replace aging radiotherapy equipment, the D\u00e1il has heard.<\/p>\n
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, who recently got the all-clear following treatment for throat cancer, said some radiotherapy machines were as much as seven years beyond their replacement time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a very particular issue for me and the people who provided me with care in St Lukes, in the area of radiation oncology machines,\u201d Mr Boyd Barrett said, speaking during his first appearance in the D\u00e1il since April.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re called linear accelerators. They basically have given me my life back, and the staff and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\n Incredibly, 35% of those machines, which are supposed to be replaced every 10 years, are now 15 to 17 years old.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Mr Boyd Barrett said 40% of these machines would need to be replaced within the next five years.<\/p>\n
He added radiotherapy services are operating \u201csignificantly below capacity”, saying the services have been left underfunded.<\/p>\n
The Dun Laoghaire TD called for a national radiotherapy replacement programme to be established by the Government, to deal with the aging infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Such a scheme should be ringfenced and centralised within Government and should have a multi-annual funding model, Mr Boyd Barrett said.<\/p>\n
He added this would stop hospitals having to \u201ccome each year with a begging bowl for money to provide this absolutely vital machinery to save lives\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur healthcare staff do everything they can to minimise the impacts and care for patients. However, it is simply not possible to provide optimal care in these conditions,\u201d Mr Boyd Barrett told the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n
\u201c16 of 24 working days last month were affected by unscheduled downtime, because machines are breaking down because they are too old, putting stress on patients and staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means that there\u2019s a lot of discomfort, stress for patients, for staff who need this life-saving treatment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In response, public expenditure minister Jack Chambers said there is a \u20ac9bn capital allocation to the Department of Health over the next five years, some of which would go towards replacement of radiotherapy equipment.<\/p>\n
Mr Chambers said health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was working on a sectoral plan with the HSE to outline where the money would go.<\/p>\n
Throughout Leaders\u2019 Questions, Mr Boyd Barrett received well wishes from across the political spectrum after his treatment.<\/p>\n
Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy said everybody was \u201cabsolutely delighted to hear\u201d his treatment went well.<\/p>\n
Last Friday, Mr Boyd Barrett confirmed his treatment had been successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a scan in the last week or so, which says the treatment has been successful and has eliminated the cancer,\u201d Mr Boyd Barrett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will have to be monitored closely, I\u2019ve got to have check-ups every three months with this cancer for the next five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they are saying it\u2019s worked, like it\u2019s as good a result for the treatment I got as you could get.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government should introduce a centralised scheme to replace aging radiotherapy equipment, the D\u00e1il has heard. People Before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[258,103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-123396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-cancer","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}