Ireland cancer centre embarks on "radical north-south care alliance":
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
A new state-of-the-art hospital in Northern Ireland will be used to treat cancer patients on both sides of the Irish border. Plans to allow patients in Donegal to be treated at the Belfast Cancer Centre, which opens next year, have been approved by the Northern Ireland health minister, Shaun Woodward. Dublin welcomed the agreement as a "radical example of co-operation between the health services north and south". Officials on both sides have yet to finalise the details. Irish health minister Mary Harney described the Belfast Cancer Centre - which will be equipped with eight linear accelerators - as "one of the most advanced in Europe". It will open in March 2006.