The provision of hospital services, including the appointment of staff, at Cork University Hospital, CUH, is a matter for the Southern Health Board. The board has submitted an application to my Department for a new post of consultant haematologist with an interest in haemophilia at CUH. This is one of a number of consultant posts which the board has submitted. The question of funding of additional consultant posts can only be considered in the context of available resources and the Southern Health Board's priorities for services in the acute hospitals sector. The matter is under consideration and my Department will revert to the Southern Health Board.
Officials of my Department are working with the Irish Haemophilia Society and the treating physicians under the auspices of the National Haemophilia Council to progress the implementations of the recommendations in the Lindsay report. The establishment of the National Haemophilia Council was one of the key recommendation in the report. I assure the Deputy that the needs of the Southern Health Board, together with the needs of the other regions, will be fully taken into account in the implementation process. Moreover, a consultant from CUH is the nominated representative of the Irish Haematology Society on the National Haemophilia Council and the product selection and monitoring advisory group, which are the two principal representative bodies advising me on haemophilia care.
The major recommendation made by Judge Lindsay in her report is that persons with haemophilia must have continued access to blood products which are of the highest standard and of the safest nature available. In 2003 priority was given to the work of the product selection and monitoring advisory group. As a result of the considerable time and effort which was dedicated to ensuring that the views of the stakeholders were given due consideration, the group was in a position to advise the Irish Blood Transfusion Service on the safest and most efficacious products for the treatment of haemophilia nationally for the period 2003 to 2005. This represents a major achievement for the collaborative process undertaken by all concerned.
I was also pleased to be invited by the National Haemophilia Council to launch a major quality initiative in the delivery of haemophilia care in April of this year. This project, which will meet a number of the recommendations of the Lindsay tribunal, will provide a new international standard to ensure excellence in the storage, delivery, prescription and administration of haemophilia products. The project will help ensure that the care provided to persons with haemophilia will be of a consistently high standard regardless of where they live. Another initiative which is well under way is the development of a national viral assessment programme and haemophilia database which will meet key concerns in the Lindsay report. This programme will support the delivery of patient care both in the national centre for hereditary coagulation disorders at St. James's Hospital, Dublin, and in treating centres nationwide. The Irish Haematology Society is working with the National Haemophilia Council on the development of national treatment protocols. A patient information day is being planned for November to launch these protocols.
