Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 7 May 1997

Vol. 478 No. 7

Written Answers - Hospital Services.

Michael McDowell

Ceist:

32 Mr. M. McDowell asked the Minister for Health the reason for the delay in allocating an additional 500 cardiac procedures to one of the four hospitals who tendered for the operation; and if he will announce his decision before the general election. [12130/97]

Minister for Health (Mr. Noonan,

Limerick East): There have been a number of investments over the past few years in the area of cardiac surgery.These have been concerned with supporting overall activity and with improving capacity in the public sector at the current adult cardiac centres at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital and Cork University Hospital.

Notwithstanding the additional investment in cardiac surgery facilities, waiting lists for adults have been increasing. The need to further improve facilities has been acknowledged and to deal with the immediate situation, I decided last year to use funding from the waiting list initiative to provide extra cardiac procedures. This was achieved by entering into contracts with private hospitals both here and in Northern Ireland to carry out the additional work.

To address the needs of the service on a more permanent basis, I established a cardiac surgery group last year to review and report on proposals for the development of additional cardiac surgery facilities in this country. Proposals for the location of 500 additional procedures will be considered by the group. The four hospitals invited to submit proposals were Cork University Hospital, Mater Misericordiae Hospital, St. James's Hospital and University College Hospital, Galway.

All four hospitals have submitted proposals to the group who have also met representatives of the hospitals to discuss the details of the proposals.The group have also met cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons to ascertain their views on developments to this service.

Cardiac surgery is a high technology speciality which requires advanced levels of medical and technical expertise. The development of this service requires a complex analysis of demand and need taking into account clinical, epidemiological and financial factors. The improvement of cardiac surgery facilities represents a major investment which must be considered in a structured manner.

The group is in the process of finalising its report which will make recommendations regarding the future development of the service. It hopes to present its final report to me shortly.