Planning for the protest march of October 11th:

In recent years we have all heard of the horrendous way some cancer patients have suffered in our Health System.

ST LUKE’S HOSPITAL, in Rathgar, Co Dublin, is one of those medical institutions held in particular esteem by the public. With its 179 beds, it has been in operation as a cancer hospital since 1954, and its staff have long been praised for their thoughtful, sensitive and respectful dealings with patients at a particularly vulnerable time.
Cancer treatment requires regular attendance over a period, and is not a process easily forgotten. The affection in which St Luke’s is held is probably best demonstrated by the fact that former patients, and their family and friends, have raised €25 million for the hospital since 1980.
In 2005, Minister for Health Mary Harney announced the National Plan for Radiation Oncology Services. It included the transfer of St Luke’s to St James’s Hospital, to create an integrated centre of excellence for cancer treatment in line with best international practice. At present, for example, there are no surgery facilities at St Luke’s. The Government’s original date for delivery of this plan was 2011, but it has since changed to 2014.Last year, writing in this newspaper, the Minister again defended the Government’s plan to move St Luke’s. “This is not about bricks and mortar; rather it is about the highest standards of treatment and care,” she declared. She is entirely correct in stating that patients deserve to have the best possible care available, which these planned centres of excellence will hopefully provide. However, she underestimates the unscientific attachment that people do have to bricks and mortar, to a specific place. St Luke’s, which is located on 18.5 acres, has the rare luxury, for a public hospital in Dublin, of extensive mature gardens, which provide a tranquil background for patients undergoing
stressful treatment.

Last October, a campaign called Save St Luke’s was formally launched in Dublin, and since then there has been a series of public meetings and marches. The last such march was on Sunday, June 8th and was
attended by 200 people.
The campaign’s chairman is Rory Hearne, who is also chairman of the People Before Profit Alliance, the political group which ran several candidates in last year’s general election and campaigned for a No vote in the recent referendum. Save St Luke’s has a 12-person committee, composed of patients, patients’ relatives and supporters, one of whom is Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald.
“People Before Profit took up the campaign to save St Luke’s because nobody else would take it on,” Hearne says. “And the reason that many campaigns fail is that they are organised too late in the day – but we are still at a point where the date for the projected move is far enough away that we have a real possibility of changing it.”

Save St Luke’s does not accept the argument that cancer patients there would have better treatment elsewhere, should the planned centres of excellence be built.

“St Luke’s has existed and functioned without surgery services to date, and it’s a bit of a red herring, because cancer treatment is long term and Luke’s is very close to existing surgery centres, such as Vincent’s,” Hearne insists.

“St Luke’s Hospital is in an absolutely beautiful place, and if I were a cancer patient in Dublin and offered a choice, I’d go there, because environment does matter,” states consultant radiation oncologist at St Luke’s, Ian Fraser. He is virtually the only consultant at St Luke’s who has been prepared to go on the record about the hospital’s future since the news broke of its move. “Patients are not happy at all at the idea of Luke’s moving. Not at all. But we can’t deliver
multidisciplinary care surgery here, and and that’s the Achilles heel of Luke’s. This is an enormous site, and at one point we could have explored the possibility of developing facilities on site. However, the decision has been made to move, and we now have to go with that decision.”

Fraser believes it is now time to look forward, even though “we all know that infighting between the HSE and doctors in Ireland is ferocious. But meantime, why are we continuing to invest money in a site that is going to be closed? If we’re going to move, don’t faff around and waste money. They’ve got the plan, but like a lot of things in the Department of Health, it’s sitting on a shelf.”

Fraser doesn’t think the campaign has any real chance of saving the hospital. “Once the Hollywood Report , recommended that Luke’s be on the site of a general hospital, and once the Government accepted that, the
campaign was unfortunately doomed.”

MEANTIME, THE Friends of St Luke’s Hospital continue to raise funds for an institution which is due to move off-site. In May 2005, two months before Mary Harney announced the Government’s National Plan for Radiation Oncology Services, she opened a 15-bed extension to Oakland Lodge in the grounds of St Luke’s, a 49-bed facility where country
patients can stay for the duration of their outpatient chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Each room has an extra bed, which can be used by visiting family or friends. The refurbishment and development of Oakland Lodge (originally nurses’ housing) was funded by money raised through the Friends of St Luke’s Hospital. Clearly, a building is no
more mobile than a garden, so this significant financial investment has a limited life.

On average, the Friends of St Luke’s Hospital raise €1 million a year, but in recent years that annual figure has risen to approximately €2 million. “Something that has become very popular is people putting buckets out at their 40th or 50th birthdays and asking people to donate to St Luke’s rather than bringing presents. They nearly always have personal contact with the hospital through family or friends,” explains appeals director Deirdre Hughes. The office has a staff of
four, and Hughes is constantly on the road throughout Ireland, attending fundraising events. All monies raised go back into the hospital.

It would be true to say that since the establishment of the Friends of St Luke’s Hospital in 1980, rightly or wrongly, the many members of the public who have jointly raised €25 million now have a sense of being included in the ownership of the hospital.

“Without a doubt, wherever I go, people ask me: ‘What’s happening to Luke’s?’ Our attitude has been from the beginning that it’s business as usual. We are still continuing to fundraise. We have a lot of patients to be seen over the next seven years, when we are due to move, and there’s no way we’ll drop our standards here in the meantime,” Hughes says.

Apart from knowing that the intention is to move off-site, the Friends know nothing else about St Luke’s projected future. The planned radiation oncology service at St James’s, in common with the other services around the country, is due to be funded through a public-private partnership (PPP). At present, St Luke’s is run as a public hospital, so questions are being asked about the ethics of any future fundraising for a PPP initiative. It might also be argued that
people should not have to fundraise for equipment and facilities which should be provided by the State.

“The Friends of St Luke’s would prefer, naturally, if the hospital wasn’t moved,” Hughes says. “But we probably won’t have a say in it.”

QUESTIONS HAVE ALSO been asked about the future use of the valuable 18.5 acres in Rathgar, which is owned by the State. This month, St Luke’s stated: “The July 2005 Government announcement very clearly states that the long-term use of the St Luke’s campus in Rathgar is yet to be decided and that St Luke’s will be directly involved in the
identification of a use that is in the best interests of the health services in the long term.”

Whether or not the Save St Luke’s campaign is doomed, as Ian Fraser suggests, it seems that the hospital’s management would prefer if it did not exist. When Rory Hearne and another campaign worker were handing out leaflets in the grounds of St Luke’s the week before their march, one staff member took a leaflet, and was informed in their
hearing by a colleague that management had instructed them that staff were not to get involved in the campaign. Twenty minutes later, the campaigners were approached by a security guard and asked to leave the premises. The security guard told them this request had come from management.

When The Irish Times sought an interview with St Luke’s chief executive Ann Broekhoven, the request was turned down, although an invitation was issued to submit e-mailed questions to Broekhoven via the hospital’s PR company. In response to a question about the above exchange in hospital grounds, Broekhoven replied: “We all have a
shared objective that the patients’ wellbeing should be uppermost and to preserve the ‘peace and tranquillity’ that is a hallmark of the St Luke’s patient experience, we discourage all forms of canvassing on
site.
“Regarding staff, the Board and executive management support the decision of the Minister announced in July 2005. As is normal practice in all institutions, the views of St Luke’s Hospital will be articulated only through the chair of the board or chief executive, or others acting on their behalf.

“Members of staff are fully entitled to hold and articulate a different view in their private, individual capacity and we do not have any issue with this provided these views are not presented in such a way as to be confused with those of the hospital corporate body.”

There is a large sign currently in situ at the entrance to St Luke’s. It declares: “St Luke’s Hospital – Expanding to meet your needs.” But expanding where and when?

(c) 2008 The Irish Times

Taken from the Irish Times 11th July 2008

The news that St Luke’s Hospital was going to close was first heard from a property developer, I was told. Some time later, in July 2005, Mary Harney made the official announcement. Since then, there have been ongoing protests, all ignored by a Government increasingly out of touch with the people.

But whether or not property developers knew before the rest of us that Luke’s was to close, there is no doubting this Government’s intention to privatise cancer care. We have been trading in health care since 1953, when public hospitals were first allowed to divide their beds into public, private and semi-private. But is it only in the last 17 years that we have seen the galloping privatisation of our health services. Cancer care has been singled out as one of the profitable areas.

Transational companies have long identified chronic diseases as money-making. Here in Ireland, a British consultancy firm with long experience of advising on public-private partnerships in the NHS produced a report on the north-east in 2006. Teamwork advised shutting the region’s five public hospitals. Few saw the shadow of privatisation that loomed behind this outrageous recommendation.

Teamwork prepared the ground for private enterprise by dividing the health service into compartments that corresponded to niche markets long identified by corporations as profit or loss making.

This skewed report, a charter for privateers, has been adopted by the Government as the template for our health system. Our services are now to be structured along lines that suit the bottom line of companies that trade in patients.

But back to cancer. Chronic care was one of those compartments identified by Teamwork in its report. St Luke’s, for example, is a private not for profit hospital. For almost 50 years, it provided radiotherapy services to the nation. Now those services, widely acknowledged to be among the best of their kind, are to be terminated, and likely replaced by for profit providers.

‘A very nice little number for the private sector’ was how Anne Counihan described public-private partnerships in health. Anne Counihan knew what she was talking about: she was then CEO of the National Development Finance Agency.

The closure of St Luke’s is part of a bigger picture. The profit motive has entered the scene.

For some years now, in many countries, particularly in the US, cancer patients have been traded as commodities, like oil and gas, on the open market. The Government has decided to go down this route. The national cancer strategy, for example, involves a ‘deal’ that will cost taxpayers in excess of €400 million for facilities that include four large treatment centres to be built under public-private partnerships. Patients that would have been treated at St Luke’s will now go to two of these centres in Dublin.

I have been told on very good authority that there will be no more publicly provided radiotherapy in this country. In Donegal, Noelle Duddy, and Cooperating for Cancer Care North West, have been battling for years to get a public radiotherapy service. Now, a private hospital set to be built in Letterkenny plans to provide the service, under contract to the HSE, naturally. UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, is tipped to provide the service.

The largest employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC is so big that its annual revenue amounts to almost half our national spend on health. UPMC is under contract to provide radiotherapy to public patients in Dublin, at the Beacon site, and in Waterford, at the Whitworth site.

Of the many American health care companies doing business in Ireland, UPMC was the only one to put its hands up last year and admit that it had paid fraud fines to the US Government. Ten years ago, the corporation paid $17m. to settle allegations under the False Claims Act. The US Justice Dept. charged that UPMC had defrauded government health insurers and unlawfully charged for using devices in heart surgery, such as stents, that had not been approved by the FDA. Six years ago, UPMC paid another fine, $2m, again under the False Claims Act.

UPMC now runs the Beacon Hospital, and is set to run the new co-located hospitals in Beaumont, Cork and Limerick, all hospitals in which it has a 25 per cent stake.

But back to cancer care. The latest round of privatisation saw the outsourcing of women’s smear tests last year to ‘clear a backlog’. The tests went to Quest labs in Chicago and Houston, Texas. Quest is another US company with a background in fraud. From 1996 – 2004, Quest paid nearly $300 million to the US Justice Dept to settle fraud charges. These included criminal as well as civil charges: they centred on defrauding government insurers and unnecessary testing.

UPMC formed a partnership with Quest in the US on lab services.

And our Government has just given Quest the national contract for smear tests for a period of 2 years. This will probably lead to the loss of 23 specialist laboratory staff in St Luke’s, and in other hospitals in Dublin and around the country. But as well as leading to significant job losses, stripping out the labs in our public hospitals is bad for patient care. It makes a nonsense of what has been held up as the gold standard––triple assessment. If you are a doctor treating a patient, you can hardly go and have a chat with an electronic signature on a smear test result. And that signature may well belong to a pathologist who has never seen the specimen.

It is common practice in US labs to attach the electronic signature of a doctor to smear test results, even where that pathologist has never seen the slide. Only if the technician spots a problem is the slide referred to a pathologist––this is the standard laid down by the American College of Pathologists. Slides in US labs are reviewed by technicians who may only have 3 months’ training––unlike medical scientists here. In Irish laboratories, every member of staff who looks at a slide has a primary, and, in many cases, a postprimary degree.

Spiralling lawsuits against a lab in Magee Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh––owned by UPMC––focused attention on the human lab testing industry in US. Standards in the industry are reported to be low. Huge volumes have not prevented botches in cancer testing. Mixed up and misread samples have resulted in unnecessary deaths from cancer, and unnecessary cancer treatment, including surgery and radiation. These are the risks the Government is prepared to run––for the sake of a tender that they say is three times cheaper. What if the quality is three times worse?

Double standards in cancer care need to be exposed. Mary Harney, for example, has publicly boasted of UPMC’s electronic link to a private cancer centre in Pittsburgh, but she has firmly ruled out the idea of a network that would allow public hospitals in Sligo and Castlebar to link to University College Hospital Galway.

There is no evidence for the robotic centralisation of acute hospital services, including cancer. But if you want to cut the the public health system––to make room for private ‘providers’––centralisation is a lethally effective way of doing it. And funneling all patients into a small number of large units facilitates the collection of specimens–– ‘clinical material’ for company R&D––and, the hope is, corporate profits.

Some of the best health services in the world, as in The Netherlands and British Columbia, provide decentralised cancer care. We could learn from them, if we were prepared to prioritise patient needs over business interests.

Cancer misdiagnoses have been made in a number of hospitals in Ireland, including large public teaching institutions and small private for profit clinics. No fewer than three of the eight hospitals designated as cancer ‘centres of excellence’ have made mistakes. Human error can never be eliminated.

It is high time we saw through the hollow rhetoric of ‘centres of excellence’. And it is high time the national cancer strategy was unmasked for what is is––a national privatisation strategy.

© Marie O’Connor

The march was addressed by Marie Harford, Ciaran Behan and Rory Hearne (all Save St Lukes Campaign Committee), Marie O Connor (Health Services Action Group), SIPTU Rep from St Lukes Hospital & Des Derwin (Dublin Council of Trade Unions)

The Save St Luke’s Campaign held a photo shoot at St Luke’s Cancer Hospital Rathgar this Saturday May 10th at 1pm to raise awareness about a protest march being organised on June 7th and to call on local political representatives to support the campaign to save the hospital.

Failure of Government TD’s and Minister

The Save St Luke’s Cancer Hospital Campaign contacted the two Government T.D.s, Chris Andrews, Fianna Fail TD and John Gormley, TD, in whose constituency St Luke’s is located, to ascertain their position on closure of cancer services at St Luke’s Cancer Hospital Rathgar.

John Gormley’s silence

The Save St Luke’s Cancer Hospital Campaign expresses disappointment that it did not get a response from John Gormley TD who’s representative spoke at the last protest and John Gormley stated he supported the campaign before the last election. We are calling on him to make clear his position.

Chris Andrews (FF) supports the closure of St Lukes Cancer Hospital

The campaign is very disappointed that Fianna Fail TD Chris Andrews who has formerly expressed his support for St Luke’s Cancer Hospital made it clear that he now supports the closure of cancer services in St Luke’s. He stated to the campaign that: “My view, as I have published and articulated in the dail just last week is that I support the cancer control strategy.”

Government Cancer strategy would mean end of Lukes

The cancer control strategy involves the closure of cancer services in St Luke’s and their transfer to St James’s Hospital which the Save St Luke’s Campaign opposes because the impact on patient care. The hospital is currently a public cancer hospital but when it is transferred to St James’ it will be as Mary Harney recently informed us “achieved through a combination of direct Exchequer provision, PPP and where appropriate, the use of the private sector.”

Contacts:

Rory Hearne 086 1523542

Marie Harford 01 4979953

Ciaran Behan 087 1379634

Save St Luke’s Campaign

www.savestlukes.net

6 Rathmines Close, Upper Rathmines Rd, Dublin 6

email: savestlukes@gmail.com

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Lobby by trade unionists, patients’, hospital and health groups

Wednesday 7th May 2008, 1 –2 p.m,

Dáil Eireann, Dublin

Supported by:

Dublin Council of Trade Unions
Youth Committee ICTU
Patients Together

Des Derwin, President, Dublin Council of Trade Unions: 087 6229686 or dctuhealth@gmail.com

At the Campaign’s Representative Conference on 26th April one of the activities agreed on was to lobby the Dáil for a decent public health service on the occasion of Brian Cowen’s elevation to Taoiseach on Wednesday 7th May. The lobby will take place from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. in front of Leinster House,Kildare Street.

The Campaign for A Decent Public Health Service march in Dublin on 29th March united trade unions, patients’ and hospital groups, health professionals and people from various regions in a demand for a health service accessible to all in need.

Since then there have been more scandals and a determined programme of disimprovement, cutbacks and hospital downgrades by the government and the HSE. They are determined, but so are we. In the next while we shall be publicising our timetable of major campaign activities for the coming months.

CAMPAIGNERS OPPOSING the closure of St Luke’s cancer hospital in Rathgar, Dublin, have criticised the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, for refusing to meet a delegation to discuss the views of patients and relatives on the closure.

The Save St Luke’s Campaign said it has been seeking the meeting with Ms Harney for a number of months. However, it was recently informed that she would not be in a position to meet with the group because of a heavy schedule in the coming months.

The campaigners said her refusal to meet was particularly disappointing because patients had never been consulted in relation to the closure. They would continue to work to keep the hospital open.

“Given the delay in the implementation of the national cancer strategy, and the increase in projected cancer victims in the future, the campaign believes the decision should be reviewed to take account of these changes in circumstances.”

Rory Hearne, Chair of the Save St Luke’s Campaign took the opportunity of the Public Meetingon Tuesday April 8th in Trinity College to give Mary Harney a copy of this letter which outlines the campaign’s concerns.

The following is the text of that letter:

Save St Luke’s Cancer Hospital:Ireland’s national radiotherapy centre

Dear Minister for Health,

The Save St Luke’s Campaign is very disappointed that you are not available to meet a delegation from the campaign despite a number of requests in recent months.

The Save St Luke’s Campaign is requesting a meeting to express the experiences and views of cancer patients and relatives of patients who are very concerned with the Government decision to close the Public St Luke’s Cancer Hospital in Rathgar and replace it with a Public-Private cancer ward in St James’ hospital.

Given the delay in the implementation of the national cancer strategy and the increase in projected cancer victims in the future, the campaign believes the decision to close St Luke’s should be reviewed to take account of these changes in circumstances.

Currently the national Public radiotherapy centre, St Luke’s treats patients from all over Ireland. It has a unique atmosphere and ethos which patients believe will not be replicated elsewhere.

The Save St Luke’s Campaign Dublin has collected thousands of signatures in support of the retention of cancer services in St Luke’s Hospital.

We await you correspondence,

The Save St Luke’s Hospital Campaign

0871379634/0861523542

www.savestlukes.net

savelukeshospital@gmail.com

The Campaign has been requesting a meeting for a number of months and was informed recently that, “Unfortunately due to a very heavy schedule of Government and Departmental business over the coming weeks and months, the Minister regrets that she will not be in a position to meet with this deputation.”

The Save St Luke’s Campaign was requesting the meeting to express the experiences and views of patients and relatives of patients who are very concerned with the decision to close St Luke’s Cancer Hospital in Rathgar.

The Save St Luke’s Campaign stated that it was very dissapointed that the Minister is refusing to meet a delegation given that no patients were consulted over the orginial decision to close St Luke’s. Furthermore, given the delay in the implementation of the national cancer strategy and the increase in projected cancer victims in the future, the campaign believes the decision should be reviewed to take account of these changes in circumstances.

The Minister is speaking this evening in Trinity College and representatives of the St Lukes campaign are hoping to get an opportunity to question the Minister there.

The Save St Luke’s Campaign Dublin has collected thousands of signatures in suport of the retention of cancer services in St Luke’s Hospital and is organising a march on June 7th in opposition to the closure of the hospital.

For further information contact the Save St Luke’s Campaign at:

Chairperson (who’s father died of cancer) Rory Hearne 086 1523542

Press officer and St Luke’s Patient Marie Harford 01 4979953/01 8313057

Secretary (and relative of former patient of St Luke’s) Ciaran Behan 087 1379634

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The Dublin Save St Lukes Campaign distributed 1,000 leaflets on the campaign to save Luke’s Cancer hospital to people on the National Health March.

A public demonstration in support of Luke’s Hospital was announced at the event.

Save St Luke’s Protest March

1.30pm, Saturday June 7th
Assemble Upper Rathmines Road (Opposite Tesco)

Marching to the Central Bank, Dame Street.

Please support.