Surgery: Irish patients in need of lung transplants will no longer have to travel to the UK for surgery following the completion of the State's first lung transplant unit at Dublin's Mater Hospital.
The unit was officially opened yesterday by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern. The hospital hopes to carry out its first lung transplant this summer. The exact timing of the operation will depend on when a suitable donor organ becomes available.
Mr Brian Conlan, the hospital's deputy chief executive, said yesterday the opening of the unit was "a major step forward for Irish healthcare provision".
Up to now Irish patients in need of lung transplants have had to travel to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, England. Dr Jim Egan, lead transplant physician at the Mater, said smoking was one of the three main causes of people requiring lung transplants. The other reasons include cystic fibrosis and pulmonary fibrosis. "About 40 per cent of all transplants happen in people with smoking related lung disease. These people have severe respiratory incapacity and would be on wheelchairs and on continuous oxygen as a result of smoking," he said.
The national unit was built in two phases at a cost of €4 million. It includes a pre-assessment unit, a high-dependency unit and an isolation unit. There are also plans for a third phase when a new theatre will also be built, but this is not a requirement for the first lung transplant to be carried out. The hospital will conduct two to three transplants a year until phase three is complete. Then it hopes to be able to do up to 20 transplants a year.
There are up to 45 patients on the lung transplant waiting list.