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Public Deserves Better Value In Heart Surgery

Friday 29 July 2005

The Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke Association has condemned the huge reduction in the numbers of people receiving bypass operations at the Royal Hospitals Trust. This is the only Centre in Northern Ireland which carries out cardiac surgery. Between 1995 and 2004 the number of bypass operations provided to the Northern Ireland population has decreased from 845 to 483. These figures were released by the Health Minister in response to a question from Peter Robinson, MP for East Belfast.

The Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke Association has condemned the huge reduction in the numbers of people receiving bypass operations at the Royal Hospitals Trust. This is the only Centre in Northern Ireland which carries out cardiac surgery. Between 1995 and 2004 the number of bypass operations provided to the Northern Ireland population has decreased from 845 to 483. These figures were released by the Health Minister in response to a question from Peter Robinson, MP for East Belfast.

“The number of operations now being performed is only 57% of that being performed 10 years ago” said Andrew Dougal, Chief Executive of NICHSA. The staff at the Royal Hospitals Trust had worked very effectively and efficiently to achieve a total of 872 bypass operations in 1997. Then decline set in. Manpower shortages in different categories of staff existed at different times. This prevented the teams at the Royal from maximising the number of operations undertaken.

The situation would be much worse but for the fact that the Northern Ireland Assembly identified additional funds for Health Boards to send patients to cardiac centres in Great Britain and in the Republic of Ireland. In 2003 this led to reduction in the numbers on the waiting list from 600 to 300. However, individuals are still being sent across the water despite the fact that more operations could be performed here. The staff at the Royal would be willing to take on additional operations but the Health Service is unwilling to pay for these. However, in England surgeons are being paid additional fees to take on extra cases. This is ridiculous when Northern Ireland continues to export cases to England.

The Trust must adopt a much more entrepreneurial approach to this problem. It should ensure that best value is achieved through the excellent staff working at the Royal Hospitals Trust. Senior Trust management must take earnest steps to retain the high quality staff which they have. The Trust has lost 2 cardiac surgeons to Great Britain in recent years. Both these individuals would have been willing to stay in Northern Ireland. If the Trust is to do its duty effectively it should ensure proper manpower planning for the future. In the past a pedestrian approach to such planning has been taken.

Quite a number of patients who need cardiac surgery are given angioplasty with stenting in order to avoid further delays. Many of these patients will have to undergo open-heart surgery later. This is a terrible waste of human resources. It also causes avoidable stress and worry for patients.

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