CANCER SERVICE CUTS ANGER.

Byline: By DEMELZA de BURCA

THE Government has been slammed over a plan to cut cancer services in smaller hospitals.

The move was condemned as "a battering ram designed to bludgeon local communities into submission before the guillotine comes down".

Health Services Action Group acting chairman Peadar McMahon said patients are being used to quell mounting opposition to the Government's hospital closure programme. He added: "Cancer care is being used by the Government as a Horse of Troy to batter down the doors of our smaller hospitals."

His colleague Marie O'Connor said: "Terminating locally accessible services in this way leaves a vacuum that profit-led healthcare corporations are eager to fill. Cancer care, US-style, unites treatment with cancer research, enabling some oncologists to make huge corporate profits from patients.

"Funnelling cancer patients into massive centres fuels this dangerous synergy."

The HSAG has also called on Health Minister Mary Harney to produce statistics to substantiate claims that cancer treatment successes are better in larger units. Mrs O'Connor said: "If the Minister can produce audits completed in Irish hospitals that prove the death rates in larger cancer centres are lower than those in smaller units, then we would very much like to see those results.

"Government under-funding has made it impossible for many of our hospitals to computerise clinical records.

"The outcome-oriented research the HSE needs to justify its grandiose claims is therefore unlikely to exist."