Donegal cancer survivor calls for improved services at LUH

A Donegal mother-of-five has called on intervention from the highest level in the health service to improve cancer care services for patients in the county.

Roseena Doherty (Toner), who has battled leukaemia, staged a protest outside the main gates of Letterkenny University Hospital on Wednesday.

The Clonmany resident met with the former Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, and this week she contacted the new Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

In a brief email, she implored the Minister to “support me in my campaign to get better cancer services in Letterkenny University Hospital “.

She was first diagnosed with Acute Myeloid leukaemia (AML) in 2021 and underwent a bone marrow transplant at St James’s Hospital in Dublin in 2022. She has also undergone treatment in Galway.

Her protest this week comes just two weeks after it was revealed that only 31 per cent of cancer patients in LUH were receiving treatment within the recommended timeline laid out by the HSE.

“They have nowhere to see their cancer patients,” she told Donegal Live. 

“The day unit is small and it is just too small. It just adds to the pressure of the day. They need more chairs, more facilities. The staff are amazing and I cannot fault them. 

“Donegal is a massive area. They are expecting 14 chairs to house patients. The whole thing needs to be a stand-alone area. The doctors need to have their say. They have to say what they need and they need to be listened to because they are the people running the show. They are doing their best with what they have - and it isn’t fair.”

When she was first admitted to LUH, there was a 13-bed ward, which has now been upgraded.

She said: “They have upgraded now to a 24-bed above the emergency department, which is brilliant.

“There are still cancer patients in the main part of the hospital and that is the part I disagree with. When you are really unwell - and you can become unwell at the flip of a switch - you need to be somewhere where a nurse knows what to do. The whole hospital is not changed on cancer care. That really spurred me when I realised that.”

In June 2021, the Carndonagh native presented to the emergency department with what she suspected was tonsillitis. A couple of hours later, she was told she had leukaemia and did not see her five children for five weeks. 

Ms Doherty said she had previously met with Sean Murphy, the manager at Letterkenny University Hospital, but was not satisfied with that sitting. 

She said the fact that only two haematologists are working in the hospital is not enough. 

She said:  “There needs to be a plan: ‘this is what we need and this is how big it needs to be’. Someone needs to listen.”

In a statement, the HSE has said that Systemic Anti-Cancer Treatment (SACT) activity is challenged due to rising cancer rates and more complex treatments. It says that it plans to develop appropriate Ambulatory Cancer Facilities at LUH.

The HSE said: “In order to address these challenges as effectively and as timely as possible LUH have established a working group comprised of the members of the Cancer MCAN management team and hospital clinical and management teams and have commenced measures to improve chemotherapy start times with the objective of returning performance to KPI targets within the shortest possible timeline.

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“This includes the high risk cancer patients who are commencing the SACT therapy on an inpatient basis.

“LUH has an area within the inpatient ward which has been designated as a Day Unit extension where patients can have their SACT treatment and will provide some immediate improvement in SACT start times.”