Election 2024: 'If your child has cancer you don't need the extra stress of chasing a bed'
Agnes O'Shaughnessy with her dog Skye in Shannon, Co Clare. Picture: Eamon Ward
A generation of sick children have been let down by the failure to build a new hospital, the mother of a Co Clare boy who faced “distressing” chemotherapy delays caused by overcrowding has said.
Agnes O’Shaughnessy’s son Alex was diagnosed with a sarcoma tumour in 2019.
He is being successfully treated in Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin but he has faced delays getting chemotherapy due to bed shortages.
“So in 2019 when Alex couldn’t get a chemo bed, they said ‘we’re investing in a new hospital’,” she recalled of the political response when she went public with their frustrations then.
He received nine chemotherapy sessions initially. This was delayed seven times, including once by over a week due to bed shortages, she explained.
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“That generation of children weren’t served by the building of the hospital.
“We have left out a whole generation while ‘we were investing’, we have let down a whole generation. The care is world-class but the hospital infrastructures are sub-standard.”
Ms O’Shaughnessy described their challenges, saying: “We couldn’t access beds, and we couldn’t access an MRI at the time as well. It was quite distressing.
She emphasises the “incredible, professional” care her son has received, saying doctors reassured them the delays would not impact his treatment.
However, she said the family were taken aback by the pressures they experienced. This is despite the cancer unit being newer than many other sections following the ‘Fix Crumlin’ fundraising campaign.
“The oncology section in Crumlin is world-class. They’re incredible but the investment hasn’t been made into the building because of the move,” she said.
“The investment hasn’t been made, and Temple Street is in a worse condition than Crumlin. It’s very very overcrowded, it’s a very old building.”
Even now as an out-patient, some of Alex’s consultant appointments are in a portable building on the grounds.
“My son turns 16 in January and he will have aged out,” she said, explaining at that age teenagers are moved to young adult services.
“We won’t have the new hospital will we by then, so he will have aged out”.
Her family have followed with disbelief reports on the new hospital’s construction, with the cost now estimated at €2.2bn.
The site was chosen in 2012, controversially co-located within the St James’s Hospital campus in Dublin 8. A completion date of 2020 was announced in 2015, with an estimated cost of €650m.
“They’re still ignoring that side of it. You can’t put a child who is immunocompromised on public transport, you can’t park at the Red Cow and pop on the Luas to go in. You just can’t do it.”
The CHI hospitals cater for “the sickest children”, she pointed out as they offer specialist care not available elsewhere.
Now Alex is an outpatient, Ms O’Shaughnessy said: “It is a well-oiled machine” with no obstacles.
“It was literally just the bed availability while he was an in-patient and that was quite difficult. It was quite stressful, you don’t need any additional stresses at that time in your life.”
She added: “It was all the chatter from the staff in 2019, there was excitement that this new building was happening. But now we’re five years on and they still don’t have it.”
