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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has reportedly said he shares the frustration and anger of families who have been affected by long wait times for children’s spinal surgeries, as he moves to meet with advocacy groups today and hear out those impacted.
According to RTÉ News, Varadkar said that despite increased health investment in recent years, waiting times for paediatric spinal surgeries have not improved. He said he would be listening to affected families at a meeting today, along with advocacy groups, who have said that they have lost confidence in the HSE, Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
The development comes in light of recent disclosures regarding the Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgical service at CHI at Temple Street, where the HSE identified “a number of serious spinal surgical incidents.”
In late 2022, CHI’s senior management was alerted to “patient safety concerns” concerning some patients with Spina Bifida who underwent spinal surgery at the facility. These concerns were tied to “poor clinical outcomes” from some complex spinal surgeries, including a high rate of post-operative complications and infections, along with two “particularly serious surgical incidents” in July and September 2022.
Irish parents are losing “trust and faith” in care for children with spinal issues, a scoliosis campaigning group have claimed.#gripthttps://t.co/Vqh3kA3UfW
— gript (@griptmedia) September 21, 2023
Last week CHI released two investigations: one internal, and one external. These reviews revealed that 75% of patients who had complex spinal surgery experienced a wound infection requiring additional surgery. Additionally, it was discovered that 7 out of 16 patients (over 43%) faced metalwork failure complications, and 9 out of 16 patients (over 56%) had metalwork removed. Over 81% of patients required further surgery due to post-operative complications, with one child needing 33 return visits to the operating theatre.
Speaking to the Oireachtas Committee on Health yesterday on the matter, CHI Chief Executive Eilísh Hardiman apologised on behalf of her organisation over the findings.
“I want to begin my remarks this morning by reiterating the apology Children’s Health Ireland has previously made to the children, young people and families included in the internal and external reviews that we published last week,” she said.
“These reports show what we had feared when we commissioned this work. Children did not receive the level of care that they are entitled to and which they deserve.
“For an organisation that exists with a singular focus which is to deliver safe, quality care to those we serve, these findings are distressing. And I know that for the patients and families involved, it is even worse.
“We are deeply sorry that the children, young people and families did not get the care they deserved and apologise unreservedly for the harm that they endured.”
Gript previously questioned both Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris, about the multi-year wait times for children in need of scoliosis procedures – a problem that then-Health Minister Simon Harris said would be fixed by 2017.
FLASHBACK: Simon Harris previously said that long wait times for scoliosis procedures were due to “the recession,” and that by 2017 “no child” would wait more than 4 months.
Teens are still waiting 5 years for surgery. @Ben_Scallan reports:#gripthttps://t.co/b6nSuxchIV
— gript (@griptmedia) June 30, 2023
Those videos can be viewed in full below.
"I don't want to comment on individual cases": After a brief interruption about sheepdogs, Leo Varadkar says whether he takes responsibility for children waiting years for scoliosis surgery – a problem that then-Health Minister Simon Harris said would be fixed by 2017.#gript pic.twitter.com/yTOvTKTdOW
— gript (@griptmedia) July 14, 2023
Irish Ex-Health Minister Simon Harris was asked if he is "ashamed" that children are still waiting years for scoliosis procedures – a problem he said would be solved by 2017. "I accept responsibility," he said, before adding that the target was given to him by the HSE.#gript pic.twitter.com/aYoTnuibVK
— gript (@griptmedia) August 30, 2023
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