Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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375. To ask the Minister for Health if persons resident here have access to other services other than dental services, ophthalmology services, ENT services and renal treatment at Daisy Hill Hospital, Newry, County Down; his views on cross-Border health care activity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22808/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I and my Department are committed to expanding provision of Cross-Border and All-Island initiatives for the benefit of patients in both jurisdictions. My Department continues to work with the Department of Health in Northern Ireland in this regard.

Three initiatives are currently operational. The All Island CHD Network was officially launched in 2016, will be progressed in phases over approximately five years and will be fully implemented by 2020. This service provides emergency surgery to babies born with CHD on an all island basis. The transfer of urgent NI cases to OLCHC has commenced, while NI elective cases are scheduled to be transferred at the end of 2018.

Activity from January to the end of December 2016 is as follows:

- 607 Cardiac Catheterisation procedures ( 546 RoI / 62 NI);

- 423 cardiac surgical patients (415 RoI / 8 NI).

The new North West Cancer Centre at Altnagelvin Area Hospital opened in November 2016 and offers radiotherapy services to patients from County Donegal, reducing their travel time significantly. A total of 20 patients from County Donegal have been referred to the service to date (as of May 5th, 2017). The service initially offered radiation therapy to patients with prostate cancer. Radiation therapy for patients with breast cancer has also now begun, with other cancer types coming on stream on a phased basis over the coming months.

Since late May 2016, all patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI; in other words, a heart attack) from County Donegal are now transferred to Altnagelvin. From May 2016 to the end of February 2017, 28 patients from County Donegal with a diagnosed ST-Elevation myocardial infarction (heart attack) have been transferred to the Altnagelvin catheterisation laboratory and have received pPCI treatment.

In addition to the substantive projects outlined above, Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) also contracts a range of additional services from Altnagelvin on a cross border basis, meaning that patients can be treated much closer to home.

I and my Department are in regular contact with our counterparts in Northern Ireland regarding the implementation of Cross Border services for patients.

In response to the particular query raised regarding Daisy Hill Hospital, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly.