Heart and lung transplants are to start at the Mater Hospital in Dublin in the next 12 months.
Mr Freddie Wood, consultant in cardiac thoracic surgery, who will head the hospital's team, says the number of transplants will be limited only by the number of donors available. Key medical staff have been recruited and senior nursing staff will be employed shortly, he said.
Heart and lung transplants are currently carried out for the Mater at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. Since April 1999, 11 patients have received transplants there.
The Mater is expected to take over the provision of the service for the Republic in 2003.
"We anticipate from 2003 onwards 12 to 15 transplants a year or more," said Mr Woods. However, if there were sufficient donors, the number of transplants could go up to 20 or 25. The Eastern Regional Health Authority has included funding for the programme in its service plan for this year.
Southern Health Board hospitals in Cork and Kerry reduced their waiting lists by an average of 32 per cent last year. The biggest percentage reductions were at Tralee General Hospital.
The number of people on its waiting list for general surgery fell from 185 to 122 (down 34 per cent); for ear, nose and throat procedures from 130 to 82 (down 37 per cent); for gynaecology from 94 to 18 (down 81 per cent); and for orthopaedics from 66 to nine (down 86 per cent).
At Cork University Hospital the list for ophthalmology fell from 621 to 385 (down 38 per cent); for plastic surgery from 203 to 115 (down 43 per cent); and for urology from 165 to 59 (down 64 per cent).
At St Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital, Cork, the number waiting for hip replacements fell from 137 to 104 (down 24 per cent). But there was no reduction in the numbers awaiting other orthopaedic procedures, which stood at 487 at the end of December, two more than a year previously.
Private developers may be invited to build and run the planned private hospital at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, according to the Irish Medical News. The Department of Health and Children has ruled out the use of public money in the development of the hospital, the report says.
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