Neither the Department of Health nor the Mid-Western Health Board were responsible for the recommendation to send this child abroad for neurosurgical treatment.
That recommendation was made by the neurosurgeons dealing with the patient at Beaumont Hospital and that decision was unanimously adopted by the surgical division of the hospital.
Beaumont Hospital is the national centre for neurosurgical treatment in the State. It is the policy of Beaumont Hospital that, where a consultant neurosurgeon judges that he does not have the expertise to deal with a particular case, he will discuss the matter with his consultant neurosurgical colleagues in order to determine if the required expertise is available within the hospital. It has always been the policy of the hospital that, if the required expertise is not available, the patients may be referred abroad for treatment.