Health board plans to improve services

A HEALTH BOARD, which has been criticised for failing to provide non-medical circumcision, is to meet next month to discuss improving general services.

A regional review of surgical services was already being planned and is beginning in September, the South Eastern Health Board said. The review involves consultant surgeons, paediatricians and anaesthetists and will include looking at all paediatric surgical service provision, including circumcision services both for clinical and cultural reasons.

Health board chief executive officer Pat McLoughlin described the death of 30-day-old Callis Osaghae as a tragedy. The boy had been circumcised on the kitchen table at his home on Sunday afternoon and died after his parents, 31-year-old Idehen and his