Irish Medical News

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Paediatric centre needed in Cork

Written by Lloyd Mudiwa Monday, 10 November 2008 16:02

A leading surgeon has called for the establishment of a second national paediatric hospital in Ireland’s second capital city, Cork.

Prof Paul Redmond, a consultant surgeon (oncology) and professor of surgery at Cork University Hospital and Uni*versity College Cork, told delegates at this year’s RCSI Millin Lecture, held in Dublin last week, that the decision to concentrate all paediatric surgery in one hospital site is without basis.

“In line with best international practice, the Republic of Ireland urgently needs a second centre for general paediatric surgery outside of Dublin, served by properly trained and certified paediatric surgeons, preferentially situated in the south of the country,” he told IMN.

Acknowledging that the del*ivery of healthcare is becoming increasingly specialised and that the new breed of general surgeon no longer has the training and expertise to deliver a general paediatric surgical service, Prof Redmond said: “At the same time, concentrating all paediatric surgery on one hospital site in Dublin is also unsustainable.”

Prof Martin Corbally, a consultant paediatric surgeon at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin, however, defended the current plan to have one national centre. Noting that there are currently three such centres in Dublin notwithstanding the relatively small population, the associate professor of surgery at the RCSI said: “Having more than one centre means numbers would be diluted. “You need a critical mass for a high intensity of surgical procedures involving complex and life-threatening neonatal congenital anomalies such as heart disease, surgical oncology, tracheostomy, diaphragmatic hernia, bladder reconstruction, and genitourinary conditions in or*der to sustain viable expertise.”

Prof Corbally added that this also applied to anaesthetics and nursing specialists. “But whatever else happens, these [complex] cases need to be ringfenced to one centre to en*sure we improve our expertise,” he said.