North may send children south for surgery

Cardiology: Children from the North requiring some forms of cardiology or cardiac surgery services could be sent to Dublin in future for treatment as part of new plans under consideration.

A senior Department of Health official told an Oireachtas Committee last week that Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin was currently in discussions with health authorities in the North about children from there using its cardiac facilities.

Assistant secretary in charge of acute hospitals, Paul Barron, told the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that Our Lady's Hospital had been asked to bid for this project as had a number of centres in Britain.

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland confirmed yesterday that the future of cardiology and cardiac surgery services for children there was currently being examined by a working group.

In a statement, the Department of Health in Northern Ireland said that no decision had yet been taken on this issue.

Slightly more than 100 children each year in the North require cardiac surgery operations.

The bulk of these operations - between 90 and 100 - are carried out at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

An additional eight to 12 children annually are referred from the North to the supra-regional service at the Children's Hospital in Birmingham for the management of very complex cardiac conditions.

In its statement, the North's Department of Health said it was committed to ensuring safe and sustainable paediatric cardiology, and cardiac surgery continues to be available to patients there.

"To that end, the chief medical officer set up a working group in 2005 to address the future provision of these services and bring forward proposals on how they can be provided most effectively. As part of its remit, the group is exploring the possibility of partnership arrangements with other units, both in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland

"No recommendation on the preferred model of care for paediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery has been made as yet," it stated.

A spokeswoman for Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin said last night that discussions with the health authorities in the North were at a very early stage.

Answering questions before the Oireachtas Committee last week Mr Barron said health authorities in the Republic believed there was a good case for developing cross-Border links in the area of paediatrics.

He said the recent McKinsey consultancy report on services for children - which recommended the development of one single national paediatric hospital with around 400 beds - had touched on this issue.

"For some of the critical specialities, the population mass required is approximately five million. There is a good case for developing cross-Border links. We will take that into account when planning the hospital," he said.

There have been increasing levels of co-operation between health services North and South in recent years. Last autumn the Tánaiste and Minister for Health reached an agreement with her counterpart in the North to allow cancer patients from Donegal to travel to Belfast City Hospital for treatment rather than having to go to Dublin or Galway.