LOL: January 21, 2025

A film about Dr Denis Burkitt – who discovered Burkitt’s lymphoma – will be touring Ireland next month. Dr Burkitt, who was from Co Fermanagh, discovered and cured Burkitt’s lymphoma in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1950s and 1960 while the writer/director of the film, Eanna Macana, was diagnosed and treated for Burkitt’s lymphoma in 2017

Dr Burkitt was quite the cinematographer, so most of the film is told through his own personal archive of films and photographs (which are incredible) – alongside recordings and reflections from hospital by the patient, Macana.

It also highlights how Dr Burkitt creatively dealt with medical problems in curing the cancer, and how in turn the filmmaker used creativity to overcome overwhelming feelings at diagnosis.

The film will be shown at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin on February 4th, in The Mac in Belfast on February 5th, in the University of Limerick on February 11th, then back to Belfast to the Cultúrlann on the 13th. It then goes to the Nerve Centre in Derry on the 18th and to the IMC in Enniskillen in Fermanagh on the 19th. From there it will go on to be shown in the UK at various film festivals and events, and we wish all involved the best of luck with that endeavour.

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How many children are in need of palliative care services in Ireland at any one time? Or, put another way, how many spaces do we need to care for children in need of palliative services? We’ll get back to that in just a moment, but for now, the news that increased investment in children’s palliative services is being planned in the Programme for Government (PfG) is being welcomed by children’s palliative group, LauraLynn.

The draft Programme for Government 2025 commits to investing in palliative care to achieve full national coverage of hospice and community services, to developing a new national policy on palliative care for children, and to increasing funding to children’s hospice care.

While being wary of promises – not quite election promises, but promises to keep all the (political) parties involved on board – I have no doubt on the delivery of this particular vow, since I had all my cynicism surgically removed yesterday. Remarkably, there was no waiting list, and I was up and walking around an hour later.

However, some scrapings of cynicism still remain in my system, and for that reason I advocate that LauraLynn & Co. keep up the advocating, and I would encourage others to support them in this regard. A commitment like that in the Programme for Government is easily forgotten, and it’s important that the promise is kept.

In answer to the earlier question, LauraLynn estimate that there are close to 2,000 children with palliative needs in Ireland, of whom 740 are, at any given time, classified as ‘unstable, deteriorating or at end-of-life’.

This paper subscribes to the idea that the people in the most urgent need should get the most focus from Department or HSE mandarins to solve their issues – simply because they are in the most dire need.

The current policy on children’s palliative care is based on a 2005 needs assessment, and is significantly outdated after 20 years.

There’s a lot more children, for starters. My guess would be that there are also increased language and cultural issues. And then there are the problems of delivering a national service that is truly national – where a child can get the same experience whether they live in Donegal, Dingle, or that default for all healthcare services, Dublin.

LauraLynn has sensibly called for new policy action on children’s palliative care – informed, of course, by the lived experience of children with life-limiting conditions and their families. It needs to be underpinned by the evidence, developed, resourced and implemented. That’s a long way from ‘throwing the dying children a few pound’ as it might have been described in the smoke-filled  vape-perfumed backrooms of various political parties.

Hopefully, it won’t be merely words, and the politicians will address the significant need in this area, remembering that child bereavement services is one of the areas where Ireland has traditionally led in healthcare.  We need a new coherent, cohesive policy that covers all children, and a 2005 policy document is not capable of doing that. Let’s hope there is the drive in this new government to make that happen.

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Speaking of the new government, will there be space – specifically in health – for new TD, but longtime Irish Medical Organisation stalwart, Dr Martin Daly? I spoke to him yesterday and he confirmed that he hadn’t yet received a call – so he remains one of the hopefuls.

You want the best experience in cabinet, and since health is one of the major challenges this government faces, an expert voice like Dr Daly’s – in whatever capacity – is surely one you want in the room.

I chatted to former Clare TD Dr Michael Harty recently about being a doctor and a TD. Dr Harty retired a few years ago and was doing a series of locums – last base Milltown Malbay – where one presumes he was something of a celebrity as an ex-TD.

Anyway, as chair of the Oireachtas health committee, he had quite an influence on health at a technical and practical level – rather than a budgetary or strategic one – but was effective all the same. My guess is that this is where Dr Daly will end up, and as a new TD, that’s probably fair….in a sense.

But it would speak to a lack of ambition on the part of the government, and that great disrupter of smoking, Micheál Martin. Appointing Dr Daly as Minister for Health would be an ‘all in’ move by him – a declaration that real change and improvement would be pushed through, and the conservative option, for once, disregarded.

Like a certain President who obviously means business. Mean business.