Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2012
1034. Deputy Seamus Kirk asked the Minister for Health if he will outline the areas in which hospitals north and south will cooperate with each other; the potential services which will be operated on a cross border basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47759/12]
View answerThe North-South Feasibility Study, finalised in 2009, examined the potential for joint co-operation in health across an extensive range of health and social care services. It set out 10 priority recommendations and many of these are already being taken forward. Areas of ongoing collaboration include - child protection, cancer research, health promotion, suicide prevention, radiotherapy services, paediatric congenital cardiac surgery and a range of initiatives under the Interreg IVA funding initiative. The Study was published on the websites of the Irish Department of Health and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland last December.
At a departmental level co-operation between the two jurisdictions is active and ongoing. "Transforming Your Care: a Review of Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland." also recommends co-operation on a number of key issues. My officials are liaising with their counterparts in the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland on how to progress these issues.
A good example of North South cooperation is the development of new radiotherapy facilities at Altnagelvin Hospital, where it is expected that services will commence in 2016. The Unit will provide more locally accessible and timely services and improve patient travelling times for patients in the North Western area, particularly patients in the Donegal area.
The Minister has committed once-off capital funding up to a ceiling of €19 million for the project and the HSE will fund the provision of radiotherapy services for patients from the Republic of Ireland. These patients will continue to have their diagnosis, surgery and other treatment planning in either Letterkenny General or Galway University Hospital, or one of the eight designated cancer centres. Chemotherapy will also be provided in either Letterkenny or Sligo General Hospital. Complex cancers, e.g. pancreatic cancer, will be managed at the designated cancer centres.
With regards to paediatric congenital cardiac surgery in particular there have been two meetings between the Department of Health and the Department of Health and Social Services and Public Safety and contacts are continuing with a view to determining as soon as possible how best an all-island service might be established and how soon this could be realised if it is determined, through consultation, to be the optimum solution. Another meeting is to take place on 9th November and in the meantime a project team comprising the hospital, HSE and Department of Health in Dublin is working on the issue to establish precisely the requirement to put in place this all-island service.
I am committed to working together with my Northern colleagues on issues of common concern and benefit. This is of particular relevance in the current time when both jurisdictions are implementing change and pushing forward health reform.
