The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, has agreed to meet the State's seven cardiac surgeons who are concerned about waiting lists for heart surgery. Over 1,600 people, some waiting for more than six years, are on the list for heart operations at the National Cardiac Surgery Centre in the Mater Hospital.
A decision is needed quickly on where a new cardiac surgery unit is to be located, according to Mr Maurice Neligan, director of the National Cardiac Surgery Centre.
Mr Cowen is currently considering the recommendations of the Cardiac Surgery Option Appraisal Group which he set up to establish where the unit should be located. Prior to the general election the former Minister for Health, Mr Michael Noonan, announced the unit was to be located at St James's Hospital in Dublin.
Following his appointment, Mr Cowen appointed a group to review this decision following objections that it had not been given to University College Hospital in Galway.
"We are all waiting for this issue to be clarified," said Mr Neligan.
"During the general election campaign Mr Cowen said that the decision of Mr Noonan to locate the new unit at St James's would be reviewed. We await news of that review. "
The Minister of State for Health, Mr Frank Fahey, said yesterday no decision has yet been made about the location of the unit, which is expected to carry out 500 operations a year. "Everybody is anxious that a decision is made soon. But I do not know when that will be. It is up to the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen," he said. A statement from the Department of Health yesterday said Mr Cowen is currently considering the overall recommendations of the Cardiac Surgery Option Appraisal Group with a view to meeting the needs of those currently on the cardiac surgery waiting list and likely future demand.
"The Minister is conscious of the fact that, as well as considering cardiac surgery facilities, there is a need to examine a number of related issues in the wider context of cardiac care services, a number of which were also referred to in the recommendations of the expert group," said the statement.
Mr Neligan said there was a "geographical imperative" that the unit be located in Galway. But he said, in a report in the Irish Medical News, that it would be better to see a smaller unit there.