Hole-in-the-heart baby must wait 13 months to see cardiac consultant

A 17-MONTH-OLD baby girl, who needs surgery because of a hole in her heart, will have to wait another 13 months before she can be seen again by her consultant. This is because there are between 1,200 and 1,500 children awaiting appointments for cardiac treatment at the Crumlin children's hospital in Dublin.

Rebecca Metcalfe was born with the condition, has received medical attention regularly since birth and has attended hospital at three-monthly intervals.

This month, however, her mother was told by Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, that an appointment arranged for her for July 15th was being changed to June 6th, 1998, "at 09.00".

Dr Paul Oslizlock, the cardiac consultant treating Rebecca, said - he believed the situation at the hospital was the worst in Europe next to Albania and Greece. "It is unique in the developed world," he said.

Rebecca was born at Holles Street Hospital in Dublin on January 30th, 1996, not far from her home at Pearse House on Pearse Street. Within six days of her birth, she was brought to Our Lady's in Crumlin, where her condition was diagnosed.

A thorough investigation last October disclosed the condition was "worse then they thought", her mother, Ms Bernadette Metcalfe, said yesterday.

Dr Oslizlock said that while waiting lists had been a problem at the hospital for the past four or five years, it had become worse recently. The general worry among medical staff, he said, was that the hole-in-the-heart operation "could become impossible by the time we net around to it". The waiting list for surgery was now "several years," he said.

He had been on three deputations to the Department of Health on the matter, and they had made concrete proposals as to how the problem could be solved. It had been estimated that doing so "once and for all" would cost £5 million.

A spokeswoman at the hospital's appointments section said Rebecca Metcalfe's appointment was deferred 11 months, as the consultants would be away in July. The waiting list for the cardiac clinic was, on average, a year for first-time appointments, she said, "and another 14 months, if you miss that one".

A Department spokesman referred to an announcement two weeks ago that £500,000 was being provided to alleviate the problems at Our Lady's Hospital.