The announcement that an international team of experts is to assess the future of children’s cardiac services here has been welcomed by Derry Sinn MLA Maeve McLaughlin.
Sinn Fein MLA Maeve McLaughlin
Ms McLaughlin, chairperson of the Stormont Health Committee, said the appointment of an international team of experts to assess the future of children’s cardiac services on both sides of the border was a “step in the right direction.”
The assessment of paediatric congenital cardiac services has been commissioned by Health Ministers Edwin Poots MLA and James Reilly TD.
A team of three international clinicians, headed by Dr. John Mayer (chairperson), Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, Boston Children’s Hospital, will carry out an independent assessment of current and future needs for cardiology and cardiac surgery for congenital heart disease on both sides of the border.
The review will begin next month and is expected to take six months to complete.
Welcoming the announcement, Ms McLaughlin said it was “clear” there had been discussions on providing an all-Ireland framework for the provision of child cardiac services.
She added: “For too long now families have had to travel to England and great expense for themselves at a time when which is difficult enough for their lives and the lives of their children.
“The families now need guarantees that in the interim that any child that needs to have surgery will be be able to avail of that in Belfast.”
Ms McLaughlin concluded: “Going forward the ideal scenario would be to extend these services with Dublin to eliminate the arduous trips for families who are forced to travel.”
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