THOUSANDS OF patients will be adversely affected by a decision taken at the National Centre for Medical Genetics (NCMG) on the grounds of Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, to stop doing certain tests due to funding problems.
Details of its plans to immediately cut services emerged yesterday, as did plans to close several wards and restrict laboratory services at Galway’s University College Hospital and Merlin Park Regional Hospital, Galway, in coming weeks.
The NCMG has had to suspend five different types of genetic test. It is suspending routine chromosome testing and fragile X testing for all children over the age of one year, who have developmental delay. This would amount to over 800 children a year, it said.
The centre is also suspending chromosome testing on couples who have had recurrent miscarriages, the equivalent of over 1,000 tests a year. In addition, it is suspending testing for genetic haemochromatosis, which would affect over 1,200 adults a year.
And it is restricting the chromosome testing being carried out on children and adults with leukaemia and related disorders, but it says it will continue to process urgent leukaemia samples from adults and children.
Furthermore, the centre is no longer able to accept samples from stillbirths and miscarried pregnancies.
Since last Friday, patients requiring tests for these conditions have had to source genetic testing centres overseas, the Genetic and Rare Disorders Organisation said. It strongly criticised the cut in services.
Also in Crumlin, it has emerged that children may now have to wait longer for surgery to correct squints and cataracts due to the failure to renew the contract of a temporary anaesthetist. It emerged in May that the hospital had been ordered to make savings of some €7 million this year and would have to cut the jobs of a number of temporary staff.
The hospital said an additional temporary consultant anaesthetist was employed by the hospital for the first six months of the year to facilitate additional theatre work and to reduce waiting lists in a number of medical specialties. “This was only a temporary measure and is not being renewed,” it said.
The NCMG, meanwhile, in a statement, said it was necessary to suspend and reduce some services in its genetics laboratories due to lack of resources. “The NCMG will continue to deal with referrals that are deemed urgent and testing for cystic fibrosis will continue,” it said.
“The service has been reduced because the laboratory has had a 45 per cent increase in samples received for genetic testing since 2005 and the laboratory has been unable to recruit a number of vacancies due to cost containment measures at the hospital,” it added.
Meanwhile, details of the cuts at the Galway hospitals were outlined by the hospitals when they met the Impact trade union.
Denis Rohan of Impact said the cuts would have a devastating effect on patients.