More Heart Ops Should Be Local, Says Charity

Nearly a third of heart operations on patients from Northern Ireland are carried out in England or the Irish Republic, according to a leading medical charity.

NI Chest, Heart and Stroke said today that this puts additional stress on the patient and their family.

While the surgical teams at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast had carried out 990 heart operations up to 26 March this year, 440 operations were 'bought' outside Northern Ireland at a cost of £14,000 each in London and £17,000 in Dublin.

While this was a course recommended by the charity as a short term measure - some 17 years ago - it has since become common practice and Andrew Dougal, Chief Executive of NI Chest, Heart and Stroke (pictured) wants this to change.

"It's not acceptable that families should have to travel to Dublin or London to visit their loved ones.

"There's also evidence that that some of the operations conducted outside Northern Ireland fall short of the high quality standards which are commonplace at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

"In fact, in some cases additional surgery has been needed once the patient returned to Belfast," he revealed.

He added: "When we have one of the best heart surgery hospitals in the UK, it makes no sense to send away a third of our operations to other parts of the UK or Ireland.

"This also means 'exporting jobs' which in the present employment situation in Northern Ireland could be seen as imprudent.

"We congratulate the Royal on gearing itself up to meet the target of 1,000 operations a year.

"But it is clear that patients and their families like to be close to home during such major surgery.

"The fact that the Royal has managed to reach 1,000 operations each year should convince the Government that it's worth investing the extra funds to allow it to complete the additional 440 procedures," he insisted.

The charity argues that the Royal would need to start recruiting extra medical, nursing and technical staff.

Said Mr Dougal: "We recommended as long ago as 1992 that Northern Ireland needed up to 1,500 cardiac operations a year.

"Despite the introduction of other procedures such as angioplasty with stenting, the need for heart surgery has increased.

"The answer to the problem is simple, but it demands confidence in our own cardiac surgery teams to deliver," he concluded.

(BMcC/JM)