Cancer treatment waiting times at Letterkenny University Hospital are the worst in the HSE west and north west region, it has emerged.
Patients waiting on their first chemotherapy appointment at LUH face an average wait time of 22 working days.
HSE guidelines recommend treatment of patients within 15 working days.
Less than a third (31%) of patients are treated in this timeframe at LUH.
Figures revealed to Milford Councillor Declan Meehan today show that Letterkenny cancer patients must wait almost 50% longer than all patients in Mayo. Key Performance Indicators are met for 62% of patients at Galway University Hospital, 76% at Portiuncula University Hospital and 78% at Sligo University Hospital.
“This is yet another example of patients of LUH being left behind and treated as second-class citizens,” Cllr Meehan said.
“It is staggering that 100% of patients can be seen within three working weeks in Mayo, but not in Donegal. All evidence shows that for every four-week delay in treatment commencing there are significantly negative effects on the patients’ outcomes. This simply means that cancer patients in Donegal are subject to higher risks and poorer outcomes, and this is unacceptable.”
Letterkenny University Hospital recently added four more treatment bays as an extension to the day ward on the in-patient ward, which holds eleven chemotherapy chairs. Meehan said this was clearly not good enough. “We need to see real progress on this issue, and we need to see it being treated with the urgency it deserves. We have the second highest rate of new cancer diagnoses in the EU. We have the third highest cancer mortality rate in Western Europe.”
He claimed that substandard care is based on geography, which, in 2025,is unacceptable.
“This is once again another example of peripheral hospitals – particularly Letterkenny – being left behind because they are far away from the centre of power and decision-making in the healthcare group.
“How many examples does the HSE need of LUH and Donegal being left behind before they take meaningful action?”
The matter was raised at today’s meeting of the Regional Health Forum West.
Sean Murphy, the manager of Letterkenny University Hospital, acknowledged that the wait time is not acceptable for the commencement of SACT (Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy) in Letterkenny.
“We do not want to see patients waiting,” Mr Murphy said.
“One of the major challenges we’ve seen is the significant number of patients presenting and the number of people on long-term chemotherapy regimes and the increasing complexity of some of those regimes.”
“That puts increasing pressure on the number of patients that can be put through the 11 chemotherapy chairs we have available.”
Mr Murphy said that the hospital is monitoring on a day-to-day basis how to be more efficient.
In the medium term, Mr Murphy said the hospital is working to replace its pharmacy aseptic unit (a compounding unit) for chemotherapy, which will create more capacity.
“Ultimately we need a new build with considerably more treatment spaces, not just for the current demand but to future-proof us for what is projected to be an increase in demand over the next decade.”
Cllr. Meehan said that he would continue to raise this issue until such time that people in Donegal, by virtue of their location, would not be at such a significant disadvantage.
