Eye surgeon warns of risk to children

A surgeon at a Dublin hospital has said children are at risk of blindness because one of his operating lists have been cancelled.

Professor Michael O'Keeffe, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Children's University Hospital, Temple Street said a surgery list planned for next Wednesday was cancelled because of a shortage of anaesthetists.

Nine children were to be operated on, he said, including a six-week-old baby who needed cataract treatment. "It is a critical period of visual development," he said.

Surgery had also been cancelled for children with glaucoma, a progressive condition that damages the optic nerve and can lead to blindness.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Today With Pat Kenny programme, Prof O'Keeffe said the conditions had to be treated within a certain time frame.

"If you don't do them in that time frame the results are poorer and there is a possibility these children could go blind as a result," he said.

The knock-on effects of the cancellations would mean a backlog would develop and the list would become "chaos".

He said other surgeons' lists had also been cancelled at the hospital.

In a statement issued this morning, chief executive of the hospital Paul Cunniffe said due to a temporary shortage of consultant anaesthetic staff the hospital had to temporarily reduce its elective theatre activity in the interests of patients' safety. He said the need for additional consultant anaesthetists was identified late last year and

while the recruitment process commenced immediately, the hospital had experienced difficulties due a national shortage of paediatric anaesthetists.

"An interim solution has been put in place with additional anaesthetic support from external sources which have already started to come to fruition," he said.

He said any patients whose surgery was cancelled are being prioritised for a new admission date as soon as possible.

"The hospital acknowledges and apologises for the distress and inconvenience that these cancellations have caused for the children and families involved," he added.