THE FATHER OF a child with a rare heart defect has spoken out about the difficulty in accessing medical care for his child.

Adam Doyle, the father of Noah, has said that he spent Christmas Day travelling to Northern Ireland to access medical equipment needed for feeding his son.

This was after running out of tubes and syringes on 21 December.

In an open letter to Health Minister Leo Varadkar that has been posted to Facebook and shared more than 14,000 times, Adam stated: “On Christmas day I had to travel to a hospital in Northern Ireland and appeal to them directly to get some additional supplies so as to keep him from being admitted to hospital over his first Christmas.”

Besides his heart condition, Noah also has a number of other health problems, including severe scoliosis, an underdeveloped skull, narrow food and air ways and kidney defect.

Speaking on RTÉ’s The Ryan Tubridy Show with stand-in host Brendan O’Connor, Adamy described his frustration with the Irish healthcare system.

The people are exceptional. The system just doesn’t help them out.

Currently the child is being seen by a number of medical specialists, including a gastric surgeon, a physiotherapist and a dietician. They have been waiting for the past seven months to see a orthopaedic consultant and ENT specialist.

Adam went on to say that Noah thankfully received a medical card on Wednesday.

“That will certainly free up the money that we’ve been spending on stuff that his medical card will provide. It will free up money to spend on other things that won’t be covered,” he said.

In response to the case, the HSE has said: