What is a cancer centre?
A cancer centre is a hospital that has a concentration of staff with specialist expertise in cancer or specific types of cancer.
Cancer centres have multidisciplinary teams. They have enough cancer cases for staff to maintain their skills. These centres also have the necessary supports to provide the best care to patients.
The staff in cancer centres work with GPs, community pharmacies, cancer survivorship support services and other hospitals. This allows appropriate patient care to be delivered as close to home as possible.
What were the criteria for selecting the cancer centres?
The designation of cancer centres was based on national policy set out in the National Cancer Strategy 2006. The National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026 supports this approach.
Each of the designated centres were required to meet the following criteria:
- Each Specialist Cancer Centre must serve a population of at least 500,000
- Cancers that are rare or need more complex treatment should be treated in a smaller number of cancer centres.
- Cancer Centres must have the necessary supports to deliver cancer care. This includes space to provide surgery and general medical care. Centres must be able to provide the tests needed to diagnose cancer and plan cancer treatment. Other services must also be available to care for people with cancer. This includes other medical specialists, such as respiratory medicine, cardiology and palliative care. Support services should also be available for people with cancer. This includes physiotherapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation, nutrition and other types of care.
- Cancer Centres should have appropriate surgical subspecialties.
- Cancer Centres must have medical oncology/systematic therapy services. This includes treatment aimed at curing cancer, palliative care and clinical trials.
- Cancer Centres must be able to sustain a multidisciplinary team environment. This includes having health professionals in different clinical services.
- Cancer Centres should provide education and training for health professionals.
- Cancer Centres must support health professionals to do research as part of the national cancer research network.
Why were cancer services moved? Are cancer services no longer available in other hospitals?
People with cancer have better outcomes if they receive certain parts of their care in designated cancer centres. This is because the hospital and the team in cancer centres regularly perform certain cancer tests and treatments.
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Several other hospitals work as part of cancer networks with cancer centres. These hospitals continue to provide important cancer care closer to the patient’s home. This includes systemic anti-cancer therapy, known as immunotherapy or chemotherapy, and patient support services.
Does each cancer centre deal with every type of cancer?
No. Some cancers occur less commonly than others. The services and expertise for these are concentrated in a smaller number of cancer centres.
What about patients who live far away from a cancer centre?
There are some supports available to people who need to access cancer care far from their home. For example, the Travel2Care scheme is organised by the Irish Cancer Society. This scheme can help people who have to travel over 50km each way to a designated centre for tests or treatment to meet some of the travel costs.
More information is available from the patient’s healthcare team or by contacting the Irish Cancer Society. Information is available from the Irish Cancer Society on 01 231 6643 / 01 231 0522 or email: travel@irishcancer.ie
Remember, certain cancer services will still be available closer to home.
