There is no hospital in the public sector with all three forms of treatment available on one campus, not one. It is an incredible situation and, according to the national cancer strategy, this will not be remedied for Dublin. At present, hospitals are given a budget in January to last them for a year. This is effectively an incentive to ration care by closing wards and reducing patient throughput. Waiting lists are a crucial issue, also.
Patients can wait several weeks to a month to see a surgeon when they find a breast lump.
There can be further delays in hospitals as patients wait for chemotherapy, as well as difficulties posed by having to access radiotherapy in St Luke's Hospital, rather than on-site as is the international norm. She should be seen promptly in a specialist breast clinic located in a hospital which has a comprehensive cancer centre. A needle aspirate or biopsy of the lump is performed quickly. The patient should know within one or two days whether she has cancer or not. She should be offered a range of surgical options and would meet her radiation and medical oncologist pre- operatively.