Wells commits to funding radiotherapy staff

Speaking at the Stormont Assembly on Tuesday (October 14) the newly-incumbent Minister said: “I know that the Chair of the Health Committee will welcome the next part of my statement: investment will be made in the Altnagelvin radiotherapy centre during 2014-15 so that it can be opened as intended in 2016.”

He added: “The funds will also mean that the cath labs in Altnagelvin can continue to operate a vital 24/7 service as planned, and that some further support can be provided to the voluntary and community sector and the Family Fund.”

Prior to his departure from the Health Ministry Edwin Poots had warned that the opening of the unit could be delayed by up to six months if cuts to his health budget were pushed through.

Mr Poots told members of the Stormont Health Committee on September 3 that £140m in proposed savings would include £2m in cuts, which would directly affect the Altnagelvin radiotherapy unit.

Ironically, it was the incumbent Minister - then a Committee member, Jim Wells, who put it to his predecessor that under the proposed cuts the planned opening date of September 2016 was likely to be delayed.

Mr Wells referred to a warning by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPSNI) in 2011 that the new Altnagelvin unit was badly needed to ease pressure on the cancer centre at Belfast City Hospital, which will reach full capacity by 2015.

Mr Wells said: “If you delay its opening for six months are we not likely to get to that position where you’re completely crammed into the city and you haven’t got the new unit open?”

The then Minister responded: “As the member well knows, my first significant decision was to proceed with Altnagelvin, the radiotherapy unit at that site, and make the investment.

“And to date in terms of capital, and everything we have done, we are on target for the opening time that we had considered at the outset.

“However, all of this is reliant on having the personnel. So we could have a very nice building but not the personnel to do the work that is required.

“Those personnel require training. As things stand, they require training this year.

“There’s a proposed cut of £2m, which will inevitably delay. So we’ll have a building but not have the personnel in place, appropriately trained, to carry out that service.

“That to me is not an acceptable position.”

Mr Wells was correct in predicting that the Chair of the Health Committee, Maeve McLaughlin would welcome today’s announcement.

She said: “I am also delighted that the minister has confirmed the Radiotherapy Unit for Altnagelvin will proceed as planned to be operational by 2016.

“This will be a great relief to those many cancer patients from Derry, Donegal, Sligo and the rest of the north west, who presently have to undergo long and arduous journeys to Belfast or Dublin for treatment.”