Doctors warn lives are at risk as heart unit ‘overwhelmed’

ADULT patients who were born with heart defects are at risk of dying needlessly because the hospital unit where they are cared for is overwhelmed and under-resourced, leading doctors warned yesterday.

The congenital unit in the Mater Hospital is struggling to cope with an extra 400 patients a year, who transition at the age of 16 to adults services.

It has no secretary and only two specialists who work there part-time with limited access to outpatient clinics and to scanning machines that are vital to ensure heart defects are picked up early.

Heart specialists Dr Damien Kenny and Dr Kevin Walsh said the conditions are so bad that lives are being put at risk.

“There is now strong evidence that adults born with heart disease who don’t have access to specialist follow-up care are more likely to die,” Dr Kenny warned.

“Due to the lack of support services at the Mater Hospital, we are now at a point where this is a reality. These are some of the bravest people imaginable and having come through so much adversity as children, it is tragic that we can’t support them as adults.”

Congenital heart disease means a person was born with defects but modern surgical techniques ensure most survive. But they can need lifelong monitoring and corrective maintenance.

Dr Kenny said the unit which looks after patients from around the country had had very poor investment.

It now has 2,500 patients on its books but both he and Dr Walsh, who spend the majority of their time in Our Lady’s Hospital Crumlin, have been given limited outpatient clinics in the Mater.

It means they are seeing a huge volume of patients with highly complex conditions in a session.

“There should ideally be four consultants. We feel uncomfortable because we are presiding over a situation where our patients are at significant risk.

“We should have five clinical nurse specialists and got a third recently.

“We have no administrative support. If a patient comes in from a regional hospital we can’t access their reports.

“We have zero secretarial support and will have to type letters ourselves.”

Regular life-long specialist review throughout adulthood is vital for these patients who can develop life-threatening complications that need to be picked up. However, the waiting time for the cath lab, where a procedure such as insertion of a stent can be performed, is now 11 months. “The longer you leave a heart under stress the more problematic it becomes. You only have to die once,” he warned.

“We have a new consultant who is due to join us but there are no clinic spaces made available to him.

“We have been banging on the door of the HSE for more resources.”

Margaret Rogers (pictured), chief executive of the support group Heart Children Ireland said: “We are now at crisis point where many critical patients are not able to gain access to vital medical care.”