Health plans 'not based on evidence'
Thursday May 29 2008
Planning for health services in Ireland is made difficult because some decisions could be based on "opinion" rather than evidence, the National Director of Cancer Control Professor Tom Keane said yesterday.
He said there is a dearth of data on many health issues and this leads to controversy because decisions are founded on opinion instead.
"The validation of decisions by good evidence is the key to making good decisions for the cancer strategy. Without good data on which to plan makes it difficult to plan effectively," he said.
Specialist
Prof Keane, who is spearheading the contentious reorganisation of cancer services into eight specialist centres, was speaking at the Summer Scientific Meeting of the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin.
The Dublin-born specialist -- who headed a similar overhaul in British Columbia in Canada -- said all decisions there are based on evidence, and its national cancer-control agency is constantly responding to new information.
He told how the authorities in British Columbia adopted a radical approach when overhauling cancer services, making each existing manager resign before either re-appointing them or deploying them elsewhere.
Nobody lost their jobs and although it took negotiation, the "force of the argument" meant that the proposals went through, he said.
- Eilish O'Regan
