Health: Cardiology

Lord Alderdice Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Alderdice]

My Lords, given that the review of paediatric cardiac surgery services presented earlier this year suggested a requirement for 400 or 500 cases per year, which is a level that cannot be provided in Northern Ireland so the service there would not be allowed to continue, can my noble friend reassure me that the Department of Health has been in discussion with the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland to see what the Department of Health here can do to ensure that paediatric cardiac surgery services are available to the children and young people of Northern Ireland?

[Earl Howe]

As my noble friend knows, the children’s heart surgery unit in Belfast is not part of the Safe and Sustainable review as it is the responsibility of the healthcare systems in the devolved Administration. It is for the Northern Irish health service to take a view on the safety and sustainability of those services and to consider the recommendations that flow out of the review in this country. We will, of course, share the learning from our experience in England, but I emphasise again that this is a matter for the NHS, and not Ministers, to resolve.