A cardiac surgery unit which opened at St James's Hospital, Dublin, in February of last year has since treated more than 1,000 patients. The 1,000th patient, Mr James Connolly, New Ross, Co Wexford, was yesterday presented with a replica heart to mark the occasion.
The Keith Shaw Cardiac Surgery Unit has exceeded its target of 450 procedures per annum. As a result, the national waiting time for cardiac treatment has fallen from five years in 1999 to six months today. More than 50 per cent of patients who have operations wait for less than a month and many procedures are carried out within days of diagnosis.
The unit cost £6 million to develop and includes a six-bed intensive care facility, a 15-bed cardiac surgery ward and two dedicated theatres. Staff include four advanced nurse practitioners who perform duties which, in the past, might have been carried out by non-consultant hospital doctors.
When the surgical unit opened, it took over much of the waiting list of patients awaiting surgery in other centres.