Lives could be lost due to hospital cutbacks, top surgeon warns

A LEADING heart and lung specialist has warned that lives could be lost because of hospital cutbacks.

“Nobody has died yet but the potential is there. The big concern we have is that people with life-threatening heart disease and lung cancer won’t be treated in time,” said Freddie Wood, a cardio-thoracic surgeon at Dublin’s Mater Hospital, said yesterday.

Mr Wood said the effect of the cutbacks would only become apparent week by week, but consultants were already extremely worried about how they would impact on services. Mr Wood, who also heads the heart and lung transplant project at the hospital, said there was no way that they would be in a position to carry out the first-ever lung transplant procedure in the autumn.