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Health Ministers commit to further development of the all-island Congenital Heart Disease Network
Health Ministers Simon Harris and Michelle O'Neill committed to a €57 million investment in the all-island Congenital Heart Disease Service.
The Ministers made the announcement at the opening of the new Hybrid Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin, Dublin.
The plan envisages completing the phased implementation of the transfer of all urgent surgical cases from the north to OLCHC between now and the end of 2017 and all elective surgical cases by the end of 2018. In the interim OLCHC will continue to provide emergency surgical treatment for patients from Northern Ireland under the current service level agreement with the Belfast Trust.
Minister Harris said:
The investment announced today, combined with the detailed planning by the Network Board over the past year, will help to realise our vision of a world-class all-island Network service. This unique collaboration is the first formally established all-island Network for clinical care and I look forward to working with Minister O’Neill and her Department to identify further opportunities for collaboration into the future, so that patients – children and adults alike – can benefit from safe, high quality services with equally high quality outcomes.