{"id":516537,"date":"2026-06-03T13:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/516537\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T13:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:33:12","slug":"if-the-nhs-cant-get-the-basics-right-it-shouldnt-do-heart-transplants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/516537\/","title":{"rendered":"If the NHS can\u2019t get the basics right, it shouldn\u2019t do heart transplants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A heart transplant typically costs the NHS between \u00a380,000 and \u00a3120,000 per patient, with the sum increasing further when post-operative treatment and follow-up are included. Prosthetic arms can typically cost between \u00a325,000 and \u00a380,000.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the base salary for a newly qualified midwife is between \u00a328,000 and \u00a335,000 per year. The RCM has calculated that a full-time midwife cares for an average of 26 to 34 <a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/childbirth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">births per year<\/a> in a hospital setting.<\/p>\n<p>On these figures, four full-time midwives could be employed for a year and deliver 120 babies in lieu of a single heart transplant, or two midwives in lieu of a bionic arm. One can only speculate how many lives these midwives might be responsible for saving.<\/p>\n<p>In a state-funded healthcare system, such as the NHS, there is a need for certain basic standards of care to be met. In an emergency, such as following a heart attack or stroke, the public should expect to be seen and treated in a safe and timely fashion.<\/p>\n<p>During pregnancy and childbirth, women should be able to attend their local NHS maternity units, safe in the knowledge they will receive high-quality, dignified care. In both these areas \u2013 emergency and maternity care \u2013 <a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2026\/06\/01\/midwives-told-dont-be-too-kind-to-expectant-mothers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the NHS is presently failing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Repeated failures of political leadership regarding these issues leave the UK embroiled in a perpetual cycle of inquiries. Why are babies and mothers continuing to die? And why are vulnerable patients left on trolleys in emergency department corridors?<\/p>\n<p>It is becoming increasingly clear our health service needs to find a way to focus on providing the basics safely. Endless inquiries are not good enough \u2013 eventually something will need to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A heart transplant typically costs the NHS between \u00a380,000 and \u00a3120,000 per patient, with the sum increasing further&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[275],"tags":[53510,8742,18,135,475,474,7005,19,17,73864,5,197912,223580,2336,15697],"class_list":["post-516537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-childbirth","tag-comment","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hospitals","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-maternity","tag-news","tag-nhs-national-health-service","tag-nhs-waiting-lists","tag-opinion","tag-parenthood"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116686435644682948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}