Bookmarkers beware: Bookmarks to pages other than the home page may not work after we change our server in April Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases BMJ No 7129 Volume 316 News Saturday 7 February 1998 Cardiac services to expand in Ireland The Irish government has announced a radical overhaul and expansion of heart and lung surgery services. The scheme, to cost in excess of £Ir40m (£48m), will increase the capacity for cardiac surgery by more than 50% - which will give the country one of the highest cardiac operations ratios per capita in the world (about 1000 per million of population). The announcement was made just days before details of a study of cardiac waiting lists at two major Dublin hospitals showed that not only had 79% of patients been waiting for surgery for more than 6 months, but 39% had also been waiting for more than three years. There are currently 1650 patients on the national cardiac waiting list, in a country with a population of 3.5 million and which has one of Europe's highest rates of deaths related to heart disease. One third of all premature deaths in patients aged under 65 in Ireland are due to heart disease, which is the second biggest cause of death in the country after cancer. Ireland's death rate for premature ischaemic heart disease is twice the European average. Under the new initiative the cardiac centre at Dublin's Mater hospital - one of those whose waiting list was covered in the survey - will remain the main national cardiac centre of excellence. There will be new facilities opened in Galway, as well as extended facilities for children's cardiac surgery at Dublin's Crumlin Hospital and for adults at Dublin's St James's Hospital and an expanded service at Cork University Hospital. This is expected to result in an extra 750 adult patients with heart disease being operated on each year and an additional 100 paediatric procedures annually. There will also be a phasing in of a heart-lung transplant service at the Mater Hospital in association with St Vincent's hospital, Dublin, which will allow lung transplant operations to be carried out in Ireland for the first time. Currently, patients requiring heart-lung and lung transplants travel to the United Kingdom, and 30-40 patients are awaiting such operations at any given time. Maurice Neligan, cardiac surgeon at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, said that the health minister's initiative was like "expecting a Toyota but getting a Rolls Royce." But, he cautioned, a major recruitment drive must begin without delay as he estimated that an additional 40-50 intensive care nurses and four or five heart and lung technicians would now need to be trained. Four new cardiac consultants are also expected to be appointed, bringing the total number in the country to 11. Doug Payne Dublin Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline