Statement by the IHCA on cancelled chemotherapy services at Crumlin Children’s Hospital

“The reported cancellation of children’s chemotherapy treatments at Crumlin Children’s Hospital is one of the more troubling effects of this Government’s failure to invest in adequate bed capacity across our acute public hospitals. This has left our hospitals, such as in Crumlin, unable to provide for both planned essential care, such as chemotherapy for cancer, and the annual predictable increase in patients’ requirements for hospital care due to illnesses such as respiratory conditions or flu.  

The failure to resource our hospitals with the beds and specialist consultants which are needed means that our public hospitals are faced with no choice but to shut down essential day to day services to cope with increases in acutely ill admissions.

Contrary to what Minister Harris and the health service management might argue these winter pressures are entirely predictable. 

It is extremely distressing for patients, such as vulnerable children battling cancer, their parents and the medical staff treating patients, who are left to suffer the consequences of the government’s neglect of our public hospital services”. 

ENDS.  

For information contact: 
Amanda Glancy, PR360, 01 6371 777/087 2273108 amanda@pr360.ie
Lauren Murphy, PR360, 01 637 1777/ 083 8015917 lauren@pr360.ie