Health chiefs have ordered a freeze on sending patients outside Northern Ireland for cardiac surgery as a result of the financial crisis engulfing the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Last year, a record number of Tyrone patients with serious heart conditions were sent to private hospitals in Dublin, so overwhelmed were local medical services.
DUP MLA Maurice Morrow said he was strongly opposed to the cutbacks.
"The Minister is literally placing local patients in a life-or-death situation by introducing these cuts", he claimed.
"As well as that patients will face a vastly diminished quality of life on the waiting list, and their families will be placed under increased stress.
"I will be seeking assurances from the Minister that Northern Ireland's health service now has the resources to provide timely cardiac surgery and does not need to send patients to Scotland or Dublin."


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