Our Ladys report - Hospital changes must be made now

It is unacceptable that the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive are merely “exploring” proposals to implement a recommendation which both know could actually save the lives of very ill children in need of heart surgery.

The proposal is quite a simple one. Those children scheduled for heart surgery in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, should remain there for the surgery after a pre-operative assessment, instead of having to go home and then return for the surgery a few days later.

One would not need to be a medical professional to realise the risks involved for the young patient in undergoing what should be unnecessary journeys at a critical and traumatic time.

It was a heartbreaking and tragic death which prompted that recommendation from an expert report, one of 13 recommendations, of which only four were ever implemented.

The name Róisín Ruddle will evoke sad memories because the country will recall the outrage that followed the toddler’s death when her surgery was deferred in June, 2003.

The little girl had an inherited heart defect, and was due to have an artificial channel fitted in her heart. She was sent home from the hospital because of a shortage of nurses, and within hours of reaching her home in Adare, Co Limerick, she died.

Just 24 hours prior to her untimely and needless death she was being prepared for surgery in the hospital but the operation was abandoned because an intensive care bed was unavailable.

Her parents passionately believed then, and do still, that had Róisín been operated on as planned, she would be alive today.

It is acknowledged that Our Ladys badly needs to be replaced because it was never intended for the role it now has. It is inadequate for the demands being put on it, but the future plans for the hospital cannot meet today’s needs.

Four months after the publication of that expert report, only four of the 13 recommendations have been implemented and the lives of children are being put in jeopardy.

It specifically referred to Róisín’s case when it said that relevant persons in Our Lady’s Hospital should consider ways to avoid the necessity of such patients and their families having to undertake two journeys in quick succession, particularly where the distance to be travelled was significant.

Because it is the sole hospital in the country for paediatric cardiac services, it is vital those recommendations be implemented in full as speedily as possible, so that other parents and families do not have to undergo the awful experience of Róisín’s.