Cancer Care in Ireland
I haven't commented about this before this because it's deeply upsetting to me.
It was a huge deal for me to go from St Vincents to the house after chemo, there were terrible taxi journeys where I felt like I was going to throw up but the drugs were keeping me from physically doing so.
Just watching RTE and they're talking about women in Donegal who have opted to have a mascectomy rather than go to Dublin for six weeks to six months for radiotherapy because the distance is too long. Apparently there have been talks about treatment in Belfast but it's at full, if not higher capacity than it can cope with. I was in tears when I heard this.
I know that it makes sense to have centralised treatment centres, possibly just for diagnosis, but the human end of cancer suffering is a completely different ball game. It's not HUMAN to insist that people travel for more than three HOURS each way to get treatment. It's not fair to have people have to make the choice between drastic surgery and minor surgery so that they don't have to have the horrible travel. One of them women alluded to the effect it had on her, and the fact that she's still wondering did she make the right choice.
What kind of future are we heading for?
What kind of Ireland are we building where economics is beginning to take the place of human kindness?
It was a huge deal for me to go from St Vincents to the house after chemo, there were terrible taxi journeys where I felt like I was going to throw up but the drugs were keeping me from physically doing so.
Just watching RTE and they're talking about women in Donegal who have opted to have a mascectomy rather than go to Dublin for six weeks to six months for radiotherapy because the distance is too long. Apparently there have been talks about treatment in Belfast but it's at full, if not higher capacity than it can cope with. I was in tears when I heard this.
I know that it makes sense to have centralised treatment centres, possibly just for diagnosis, but the human end of cancer suffering is a completely different ball game. It's not HUMAN to insist that people travel for more than three HOURS each way to get treatment. It's not fair to have people have to make the choice between drastic surgery and minor surgery so that they don't have to have the horrible travel. One of them women alluded to the effect it had on her, and the fact that she's still wondering did she make the right choice.
What kind of future are we heading for?
What kind of Ireland are we building where economics is beginning to take the place of human kindness?