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UPMC planning to open 25 cancer centres outside Ireland
Sunday, November 23, 2008 By Susan Mitchell
The operator of the Beacon Hospital in Dublin and Whitfield Cancer Centre in Waterford, plans to open 25 cancer treatment centres across Europe and the Middle East modelled on its Irish clinics.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre (UPMC) will collaborate in the expansion with GE Healthcare, which will provide and service radiology equipment.

UPMC runs one of the largest cancer programmes in the US, and has been operating in Ireland since 2006.

Michael Costelloe, managing director of UPMC Ireland, said the Irish clinics had proven it was ‘‘feasible to extend the network of cancer care internationally’’.

He said UPMC had treated more than 1,000 cancer patients in Ireland and was interested in other opportunities in Ireland, with private cancer care centres planned for Donegal and Cork.

In the US, UPMC’s cancer centres become profitable between three months and a year after opening. The centres located in Ireland have taken longer than that to become profitable.

‘‘Healthcare reimbursement in Ireland is lower than in the US while costs are about the same, so it takes longer for a healthcare facility to become self-sustaining,” said Costelloe.

He said that UPMC would team up with local governments or private companies to open the new centres throughout Europe and the middle east.

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