Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD, Seán Crowe, has stated that the evolving situation where cancer patients across the country are facing treatment difficulties due to a shortage of life-saving chemotherapy drugs is beyond belief.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“Imagine you or a loved one has cancer and you are told that the life-saving drug for your treatment might not be available or in the quantity that you need.

“That is literally what some families are waking up to hear this week. That is unacceptable and everything possible needs to be done to resolve this supply difficulty.

“The situation as it currently stands, whereby there is a shortage of these life-saving drugs due to the inability of a healthcare company to provide a full supply over the past two weeks, is inexplicable.

“Oncologists at several hospitals have had to readjust the treatment they are giving to patients with doctors in some cases having to give patients lower doses of the drugs than originally intended under their treatment plan. That is clearly unacceptable and another new low in the lack of delivery in our crumbling health service.

“The direct fallout from such mismanagement is that patient care and safety is again seriously compromised. The net result of the recurring and ever evolving crisis in our health service is that patients are being put at risk, and doubtless, this crisis is also costing lives.”

Crowe continued:

“The genesis of our health crisis is underfunding, under-resourcing, cutbacks in services, and an overreliance on the private sector. I have little doubt that a combination of these issues was responsible for allowing this particular situation to develop.

“In my opinion this latest crisis has all the hallmarks of incompetence with mismanagement playing a large part.

“In no other walk of life would the failure of the HSE and the Minister for Health be tolerated, yet in roles where their decisions have a life and death impact such utter failure persists.

“Fine Gael might be in the midst of a leadership contest and Minister Harris might have some canvassing to do, but first and foremost he needs to do his job and address this issue immediately and explain to the patients affected, and the Irish people, how this was allowed to happen.

“Cancer patients and their loved ones have more than enough worries without the added burden of wondering whether their life-saving treatment will be available and in the sufficient quantity that they need.”

ENDS