Vol. 377 No. 6
asked the Minister for Health the circumstances in which a child had an operation postponed five times before eventually being brought to Crumlin children's hospital open heart surgery centre, Dublin 12 on 1 February 1988 only to be sent home on 2 February 1988 following another postponement.
26.
asked the Minister for Health if he will make a statement on the situation in the children's hospital, Crumlin, Dublin 12 with reference to its ability to cope organisationally and financially, with the demand for heart surgery for children.
190.
asked the Minister for Health in relation to the recent comments made by a person (details supplied) that Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin 12 faces a demand for 300 cardiac operations for children each year but because of budgetary and organisational difficulties the hospital will be unable to meet this demand, the steps he proposes to take to improve this situation especially in view of the fact that survival rates for radical surgery in Ireland for children are higher than the British rates for the same operations.
220.
asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the problems encountered by the parents of a seriously ill six-and-a-half year old boy (details supplied) from Cork City who has had vital heart surgery postponed five times in the past seven weeks at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin 12; if he has any plans to remedy this very serious situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 24, 26, 190 and 220 together.
The child referred to by the Deputies was scheduled for operation on three dates — 14 December 1987, 18 January 1988 and 1 February 1988. His admission was cancelled before he left Cork on the first two occasions. The operation scheduled for 1 February 1988 was cancelled as there was no bed available in the intensive care unit. The intensive care unit has a complement of eight beds, all of which were occupied on that occasion.
Crumlin Hospital has said that it will do its utmost to operate on the child on 29 February. Unfortunately, this can never be guaranteed because of the unpredictability and uncertainty of admissions for heart surgery, where more urgent cases present, they may have to be dealt with ahead of those scheduled. Decisions on priority are a matter for the clinical judgment of the medical consultants at the hospital.
On the wider issue of the demand for heart surgery, Deputies will be aware that waiting lists are, and always have been, a feature of the health services. We, in Ireland, do not differ from other developed countries in this respect. Waiting lists for elective surgery here are frequently shorter than is the case in other countries.
Nevertheless, I am concerned about the long waiting lists in certain specialties such as paediatric cardiac surgery and in orthopaedic surgery. My Department are giving special and urgent consideration to how these waiting lists can be reduced.
