By David Raleigh
The Ombudsman for Children, Niall Muldoon, has called on the government to “honour its commitment” it made seven years ago to reduce scoliosis surgery waiting times for children to no longer than four months.
Last Friday, the parents of eight-year old Harvey Sherratt, Clondalkin, Dublin, a patient at Temple Street Children’s Hospital, told how an 83 degree curve on their son’s spine, initially diagnosed when he was aged one, was threatening his life as it had resulted in his ribcage “crushing one of his lungs’ and “pushing on his heart”.
“He will die, he absolutely needs the surgery,” Harvey’s father, Stephen Morrison, said.
After reading Harvey’s story, the Minster for Health Stephen Donnelly asked to meet with his parents to discuss the case.
In a statement sent to this reporter, Thursday, Mr Muldoon said he was aware of the “extremely long waiting times being experienced by children who need orthopaedic surgery” and, he said, “the government must honour the promise that no child will be waiting longer than four months for their scoliosis surgery in Ireland”.
“This is a promise they made to these children and it has been repeatedly broken with devastating consequences,” Mr Muldoon said.
Mr Muldoon was refereeing to a commitment made by then Minister for Health Simon Harris in 2017 to reduce the scoliosis waiting list to four months.
Mr Harris said then that he was “ashamed” off the situation: “We are going to fix this, we’re going to make sure by the end of this year, no child waits longer in this country for scoliosis procedure than four months, no child will wait longer than four months.”
Today, seven years on from that promise, the Department of Health confirmed that, “at the end of December 2023 there were 231 children on the for spinal surgeries”.
The department said this figure “excludes” the number of suspended surgeries, and is a 5% reduction on the waiting list compared to the end of 2022.
It said 78 “active patients” were “waiting over four months” for paediatric spinal surgery “which is a 13% reduction compared to the end of 2022”.
The department had still not responded when asked but this reporter last Tuesday when a dedicated spinal surgery unit, promised by Minister Donnelly, would be operational, although a consultant surgeon, Dr David Moore has been appointed to lead the unit, and a nurse manager and business manager had also been appointed.
It’s still unclear where spinal unit will be located, how many more staff are needed, if it will run five or seven days a week, and how many orthopaedic consultant surgeons are required.
Mr Muldoon meanwhile, said he would “continue to highlight” the waiting list problem: “We must never forget, that these children are in significant pain and distress while they wait, their life suspended, their childhood passing them by.”
Mr Muldoon said his office previously highlighted “ongoing delays and the failure, by Government, to adequately address the issue of access to scoliosis treatment for children” in 2017, and again last July “when 309 children and their families were waiting for scoliosis treatment in Ireland”.
Orthokids Ireland, a group representing 150 families whose children are waiting for orthopaedic surgery has called for the on leave consultant surgeon Connor Green to be allowed return to work at Temple Street,and claimed he is the only surgeon who is adequately trained to handle complex orthopaedic conditions.
Professor Damian McCormack, the lead paediatric orthopaedic consultant at Temple Street, has also said he would support Mr Green returning to work.
Mr Green went on voluntary leave last September after concerns were raised about surgical outcomes of a number of spina bifida patients and CHI referred the matter to the Irish Medical Council.
Yesterday (Wednesday) it emerged that an independent review, sought by CHI, into 19 spinal surgeries involving paediatric spina bifida patients at Temple Street had been delayed after 17 additional “cases of concern” were identified for review.
However, Una Keightley, co-lead of the Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy Group (SBHPAG), said that, in her opinion, the review had been delayed and widened because the majority of the original cohort of 19 patients parents, which she said are represented by SBHPAG, had refused to allow their child’s case files to be included in the review.
Parents have received letters from CHI informing them that their child’s case has been selected and will be referred to the review, but Ms Keightley said SBHPAG’s legal representatives were examining whether this was in breach of the patients personal data.
Ms Keightley claimed the independent reviewer “can’t get them (parents) to the table because they have no trust in CHI or the HSE”.
“The majority of the 19 cases have indicated they do not wish to have their child’s case details reviewed. They feel the review must encompass more than the focus of one surgeon and it must look at the widespread failures across the CHI network and CHI mismanagement of the situation,” Ms Keightley said.
Minister Stephen Donnelly has said he is “not satisfied” that €19million he allocated to CHI to reduce the spinal surgery waiting list had been solely used for the purpose.
Minister Donnelly said he was putting in place a task force and a dedicated spinal surgery unit to deal with the waiting list problem.
CHI has been asked for comment.