A Roscommon Councillor is welcoming news that a new Specialist Cancer Centre for the West and Northwest has been included in the National Service Plan.
Orla Leydon says the development of the facility at University Hospital Galway will ensure patients from this region have quicker access, diagnoses and recovery outcomes.
Progress on the project was at a standstill but the Fianna Fail representative now says it can move to design and planning stages.
Councillor Leydon access to these services is hugely important.
''It's really good news for Roscommon/Galway and for the whole Northwest Region and the project can now move to design and planning and it'll just mean that people will be able to have quicker access and better diagnosis and interventions. Unfortunately the five year survival rate for breast cancer, for example, in the east of the country is 86% and in the West, it's 80%. So it's important that we in the Northwest have the facilities equal to that n the rest of the country.''
