HSE denies suspension of donor programme

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has dismissed reports that a living donor related transplant programme was suspended six months after it began at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the HSE said he had been assured by hospital authorities, as recently as late last week, that the programme was extant and would achieve its target of 15 transplants for 2007.

However, a report that the programme was put on hold is being investigated by the Health and Children Minister, Mary Harney.