David Cullinane
Waterford · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I met many of those patients and people with the illness yesterday. Many of them were here in Leinster House. They told me, as they have in the past, they cannot walk and they cannot swallow and, as the Taoiseach acknowledged, it is also very difficult for their families who have to watch as their condition worsens and the disease progres…”
“In fact, in the programme for Government the Government committed to reviewing that process because it was accepted it does not always work. The technical review group obviously now needs to be convened and needs to meet urgently. Emily cannot afford more delays.”
“Yesterday, as the Taoiseach knows, the HSE drugs group met to consider reimbursement of Skyclarys, the first approved treatment that can slow the progression of Friedreich's ataxia. Patients hoped for a positive decision. This process has been ongoing for years.”
“They were left desperately making phone calls, checking for updates, asking journalists and asking politicians if they had heard anything. They were treated appallingly. Then, when the news did eventually filter though, they were left devastated.”
“Richard Walsh, consultant neurologist and co-director of the National Ataxia Clinic, has described this drug as a ground-breaking development. He has said that he would prescribe it if it were available in Ireland and that it may reduce the rate of disease progression.”
“"We are not going to regain any of the abilities we've lost, but Skyclarys will give us time. Time when you're dealing with our progressive relentless disease is everything. We all deserve time with our loved ones." Those are the words of Emily Felix, a 28-year-old trainee solicitor from Kilkenny who is living with Friedreich's ataxia.”
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“When they are told not to worry and that the services will be there, when the very same families cannot get a special school place, a speech and language therapist or occupational therapist for their child, they simply do not believe the Government. They see it as cynical, as I do, because that is what it is. The entire Opposition needs to fight this Government really hard to ensure that if it has the brass neck to come in here and try to remove one of the few rights that children with disabilities have, that needs to be resisted and called out for what it is.”
“Of course, the High Court said the Government had broken the law and it was called out. In an even more deeply cynical move, we heard from the Taoiseach today, and I have heard the same from the Taoiseach over recent months, that the Government now wants to bring in legislation that will remove the need for an assessment of need. This will be dressed up. The Taoiseach said today it is going to mean more access to services and direct access to services, with no need to worry about assessments of need, but that is an absolute insult to families. The whole logic of an assessment of need, as comprehensive as it needs to be, is to look at each individual child's health needs and educational needs. If that does not happen, the child will not get the services.”
“That court case was a challenge to the Government's preliminary team assessments because it was breaking the law. Rather than actually delivering for the children and accepting its failure, whereby it had failed over that long period since 2005 to get to grips with this issue, put the services in, train the professionals that were needed and ensure that children would have access to assessment of need but also to services, the Government decided that no, it would break the law. It would just pawn them off with a couple of hours of an assessment and call it a preliminary team assessment. Then the Minister stood up in the Dáil Chamber every month and said that waiting lists were coming down as if she was trying to claim credit for something that was actually an insult to families.”
“Children were taking court cases almost daily through their families to get assessments of need but they were not worth the paper they were written on because the Government simply did not put the services and resources in place. This meant the backlog got bigger. In a deeply cynical move, what did the Government do? It did not train more professionals or make sure we had more therapists who could carry out the assessments. It came up with what it calls the new standard operating procedure, a yellow-pack preliminary team assessment, and it would have pawned that off as an assessment of need only for parents and me and Deputy Mary Lou McDonald. I met a large number of them and ultimately they took a court case, and we dealt with legal people ourselves at that time, in 2022.”
“The logic of the 2005 Act was that the assessment would be a comprehensive one, that it would be carried out for each and every child in a timely fashion and that it would look at the health and educational needs of each and every child, which makes perfect sense. The same Act also provided for an aggregate report to be published and furnished to the Minister. For years, those reports were never furnished because the assessments did not happen. The logic of that was that the Minister of the day could see what the aggregate need was with respect to health and education services, be it therapies or access to schools. What has happened since 2005 is that the waiting list have gone up and up.”
“I also welcome Cara and her father Mark to the Public Gallery. I have met both of them a number of times over recent years and am always struck by the dedication Cara has to this issue. She started out campaigning for her siblings but is now campaigning for every child waiting for an assessment of need. She deserves tremendous credit. As others have said, assessments of need for 15,000 children are overdue. A previous Fianna Fáil Government put in place the Health Act 2005. At the time, it was welcomed by campaigners and families of children with disabilities because for the first time, it enshrined in law a right for children. It did not enshrine in law a right to access services but it did provide for a legal right to an assessment of need, which had to be carried out within a six-month period.”
“I was in contact with the manager of the hospital in Waterford this morning and he tells me that it needs a PET scanner. Very sick patients are being obliged to travel to Cork and Dublin for scans at present. Will the Minister for Health and the Government support this major hospital, the only model 4 hospital in the south east, and ensure that a PET scanner is put in place there to ensure that patients from Waterford and the south east who are sick do not have to travel to Cork or Dublin?”
“Given that we are on the theme of hurling and the GAA, I may as well wish the Waterford hurlers the very best of luck against Tipperary on Sunday in what is a must-win game for both teams. I wish to raise a very serious issue. University Hospital Waterford is a level 4 hospital. It is the regional hospital for the south east and it does not have a positron emission tomography, PET, scanner. PET scans are very important in diagnosing brain disorders, tumours and heart disease. There is a PET scanner in UPMC Whitfield, a private hospital in Waterford. Unfortunately, it has broken down several times in recent months. Public patients in University Hospital Waterford were being outsourced to UPMC. I have been told that machine is coming to the end of its life.”
“Kerry Airport gets funding. Other airports get funding and we are left behind. This is an issue for the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, for the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, and for the Ministers of State, Deputies Mary Butler and John Cummins. They must step up to the plate and tell the people of the south east if the Government is going to do this or not. Stop sending the fool further in relation to this.”
“I do not blame the Minister of State who is taking the debate but, as I expected at the start of my original contribution, the written statement from the Minister of State again talks about a review, consideration and next steps. It states that it will be considered and there will be further engagement and an appraisal process. We need the money. It is that simple. It is "Yes" or "No". Will the Government fund the runway extension or not? This was signed off in principle, as the Minister of State knows, back in 2019. It really is a case of sending the fool further. Every single time I come in, I get the same recycled speech. I could be here in a year's time again still listening to talk about next steps and appraisals. Yet Cork Airport is getting tens and hundreds of millions. Dublin Airport gets funding. Shannon Airport gets funding.”
“There is an inherent unfairness in what is happening here. Can we cut to the chase and cut out the crap on this once and for all? Will the Minister of State tell the people of Waterford and the south east if he is going to fund the runway extension at Waterford Airport? It is "Yes" or it is "No". Let us have no more dithering and no more delays. Will he please tell us if he is going to fund it?”
“I have raised this issue with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and I do not know how many Ministers for transport and, every time I do, I am told the same thing. I am told that it will be reviewed and examined, that it is under consideration and that work is being done behind the scenes. All of it has come to nothing. While I do not begrudge Cork any funding, we saw a €200 million investment in Cork Airport. Part of this was to extend car parks and remediate existing runways but funding was also provided to extend the executive lounges and duty-free shop at the airport. We have an airport that needs a runway extension if it is to have a fighting chance. It is needed to allow jet planes to take off and land and to allow a new carrier to come in to provide connectivity to Britain and Europe.”
“It seems to the people of Waterford that, when it comes to the application for funding for the runway extension at Waterford Airport, which is not just an issue for Waterford but for all those who live in the south east, it is a case of "Send the fool further". That is now said to me regularly. In 2019, I attended a meeting with the then Minister for transport, Shane Ross, one of the Minister of State's former colleagues. He gave a commitment to fund the runway extension. At the time, that was a commitment of €5 million. At a meeting that he organised, he informed Members of the Oireachtas from Waterford that there was very serious pushback from the Department of transport and officials but he made the decision. Here we are six years later and there is still no funding.”
“If the Minister were to commit to that in principle - I am not saying it needs to be done this week, next week or next month - I am sure the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health would be more than happy to work with her to progress it as soon as possible. I am genuinely only interested in getting this legislation through to make sure people are properly protected and safeguarded.”
“I agree that the Law Reform Commission report was very important and allows for the foundations for legislation to be put in place as quickly as possible. I raised this with the incoming chair of the health committee, Deputy Rice, as an issue on which the committee should focus. I am sure we would be prepared to work with the Minister in having the Law Reform Commission appear before the committee and talk through its proposals. Ultimately, however, I am sure that if it were before the committee, it would say it has made recommendations. I know the Farrelly commission report made recommendations on safeguarding, an independent authority and right of access - all of the same issues that would have to be in any legislation. Everyone is saying the same thing but there is still no commitment to legislation.”
“In fact, whenever the Government gets around to its statutory home care scheme - I do not know when that will ever see the light of day - social care teams will say that there will be a need for safeguarding legislation in that area as well. Policy is all well and fine. I am not in any way dismissing the importance of what is being done by the Minister. Legal frameworks, legal rights of entry and mandatory reporting are very important because in their absence, we have more failures and issues, and we then have tea and sympathy afterwards and reports where we say are sorry and we will look into it and apologise. It is our job to get the legislation right and to ensure we have the most robust legal protections for adults in all care settings. All I am asking for is legislation that will enable that to happen.”
“We are reflecting on the Grace case. We had very lengthy debates in this House over a number of days last week, as the Minister knows. Grace was an adult for 12 years of her time in that home. As we know, she suffered very serious neglect and abuse in that home for a long number of years. As the Minister mentioned, it is not just about the Grace case; we also had the Brandon and Emily cases. We have had far too many cases and reports which have made the same recommendations that we need a much stronger and more robust legal framework with regard to the protection of adults in disability centres, nursing homes and care homes.”
“This question is on the need to introduce and implement adult safeguarding legislation. I have been raising this issue for a long number of years. I know there is a commitment in the programme for Government to review policy in this area, but we need a strong legislative framework. I want to see an independent safeguarding authority in place, a legal right of entry for social care teams and mandatory reporting. I will outline why I want to see all of those things in my supplementary question, but I am interested to hear the Minister's response on whether she is able to give a timetable or a commitment for when we might see legislation in this area.”
“It says that the letters that issued in recent weeks in relation to families and patients who had hip dysplasia procedures since 2010 were to provide reassurance and information about the audit and to ensure all potential cases were included. I do not know what that means and it has not been properly explained. We have been chasing CHI to give us this information time and again but we still do not know. Nobody has answered the question as to how many letters were given to parents. Surely to God CHI has that information, can give it to the Minister and then the Minister could tell parents and families. I do not know why that information is being concealed from us. In my view there is no good reason as to why that should be the case.”
“The Deputies are simply saying that eight years ago, promises were made and here we are with these issues still not resolved and waiting lists nowhere near where they should be. I want those waiting lists to come down. I want children to get the services they need. I was not the one that made the promise. I certainly was not in the room when commitments were given on what capacity would be needed to meet those promises. I can only hold the Government to account based on where we are at the moment. The Minister raised the issue of hip dysplasia in that report as well, or a review she is waiting on. The Minister will know that I received a response to a parliamentary question this Friday gone, which was covered in the media today.”
“I asked the Minister also about the clinical review in Temple Street, which is being carried out by Mr. Nayagam. I have asked about this review time after time. When are we going to see it? There is no draft or interim report and no update. I know these things take time but it is really important to restore confidence in Children's Health Ireland, CHI, so that we get some sense as to when these reports will be concluded, and that we can see what is in them.”
“As far back as 2017 the same families were told that this was a top priority. The Minister might recall that Simon Harris at the time gave a clear and unequivocal commitment to reduce waiting lists and that no child would wait longer than four months. That point was restated by the next Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. He said that by the end of the year just gone no more than 20 children would be waiting longer than four months. The figures, of course, tell a different story with 3,400 children on waiting lists for their first orthopaedic outpatient consultation, 230 children on spinal surgery waiting lists and 137 active waiters. There are now 48 children who are waiting six-plus months for their surgeries. As this has increased from 37, rather than going down the number of people waiting has gone up.”
“What are the Minister's plans to reduce children's orthopaedic waiting lists? When is the independent clinical review of spinal surgeries at Temple Street likely to be published? I have a number of other questions that I will get to when I respond to the Minister.”
“I also raise with the Minister of State an issue in Bunmahon, which I have been dealing with for five years. We were promised a scoping report into Bunmahon wastewater treatment. Bunmahon is due for an assessment via the south-eastern strategic modelling study. I have been told this will take until 2027. One of our councillors on the ground, Councillor Catherine Burke, has been working on this issue and raising questions with Irish Water. It should not take until 2027 just to do a study when there are very real concerns with regard to the discharge of water in Bunmahon. I wanted to raise those local issues as well.”
“Local authorities have pointed out time and again that issues with Irish Water are impeding the State's ability to deliver housing. That needs to be dealt with. I will raise two other issues with regard to Irish Water in our constituency. The Minister of State will be familiar with issues in Lismore in County Waterford. I attended a protest at which hundreds of residents gathered in Lismore a number of weeks ago. Things have improved and there is now at least a dialogue and information is being given to residents there. I met the residents with Deputy Conor McGuinness and Councillor Donnchadh Mulcahy. We also met representatives from crèches, community groups and so on. As the Minister of State knows, there is a need for an additional reservoir in Lismore, which needs to be funded. The infrastructure is also archaic.”
“I spoke to a developer from Waterford in advance of this debate. He is building a number of housing estates in Waterford. I am sure the Minister of State will be familiar with many of the projects. This developer mentioned to me some time ago the issues he has with ESB and Irish Water, in particular with regard to Irish Water. He was of the view that these issues are impacting on his company's ability to deliver housing on time. He talked about not getting definite answers and issues with advance meetings regarding planning applications and even buying land. As Deputy Ó Broin said, this is an experience that local authorities have as well. It is not only private developers who are saying this. We have heard this from the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, in the past.”
“These problems have to be fixed for all workers, both public and private. Again, I commend Deputy Kerrane on moving this motion.”
“However, when we talk about nurses, healthcare assistants and radiologists, particularly those who are female, childcare is a barrier for them working seven days a week. If we want them to work on Saturdays and Sundays as part of five days over seven, they are going to need childcare. As we know, that is going to be difficult if childcare itself is only available five days a week. There are many issues on which the Government has not joined up the dots. That is one of them. I deal with nurses all the time who tell me that because of hours and overtime childcare is a huge issue for them. If the Minister for Health and the Government are serious about moving the health service to a seven day a week health service, they are going to have to fix the problems in childcare.”
“We looked at increasing capacity, dealing with pay and terms and conditions of employment, all of those issues. We looked also at child minding as well as childcare services. Our plan was the only one that would comprehensively deal with the issues of childcare. We said it during the course of the election campaign, and I believe we will be proven correct, that what the leader of Fine Gael was saying at the time was not going to come to pass. I do not believe we are any closer to any form of public model of childcare that was spoken about then. I briefly want to talk about an issue that is relevant to this debate on childcare. We hear a lot from the Government on the need to move to a seven day a week health service, with which I agree. To make that happen will require additional staff.”
“I commend Teachta Kerrane on bringing forward this motion. I concur with the points she made on the last general election and the spoofing that was done by Fine Gael especially but also by Fianna Fáil on many issues but most particularly in the area of childcare. The Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, in particular spoke a lot about a public model of childcare. That seems to have gone by the wayside. We called that out during the election campaign for the spoofing that it was, and rightly so. That was followed very quickly by similar proposals by the Minister's party, Fianna Fáil, and they too have fallen by the wayside. The reality is that the only party that brought forward a plan that looked holistically at the issues in childcare was Sinn Féin. We looked at the funding element of it and at reducing the cost for families.”
“There were individual failures where red flags were raised and, I believe, not only missed but ignored by people who should have known and done better. There were systemic problems across this case and many more where institutional accountability has not been accepted. There also has to be political accountability taken by Government. It is shameful that we are debating this today when we still do not have the most robust safeguarding of and protections for adults in care settings. That is on the Oireachtas and on the Government.”
“We still do not have mandatory reporting in respect of allegations of abuse or neglect for adults in care settings. That is absolutely astounding. Deputy McDonald and I have met organisations that have been crying out for safeguarding legislation for years, Care Champions most recently, also the Irish Association of Social Workers, experts. In fact, in the Emily case, there was one safeguarding expert who went public to say there was an attempt by HSE officials to alter the case file. That is what was happening, yet nobody is held to account in any of those cases. Nobody in the HSE or elsewhere has been held to account for the failures in relation to Grace. We cannot mince our words. We cannot do justice to Grace in any five-minute contribution that we have, but we have to acknowledge the failures.”
“Since then, there has been the Emily case. Emily was a female who was brutally raped in a nursing home. Again, there was a report into that case. Again it found shortcomings in safeguarding. There was the Brandon case, which examined and reported on 104 incidents of inappropriate sexual behaviour by a person in that care home. Again, there was a report and recommendations. At the core of all of it is safeguarding. For 12 years of her life when Grace was in that foster home, she was an adult. If Grace was still there today, or any person in similar circumstances, as we debate this report, they still do not have the legal protections of safeguarding legislation. It still is not in place, despite all of those reports and all we have seen.”
“They were people who came forward and for the first time not only blew the whistle but were prepared to see it through to the end. As we know, they were treated shamefully as well by the State and by those in authority. I commend those brave whistleblowers on coming forward. This was a deeply distressing case but what was most distressing was that so many red flags had been missed over so long. This was the worst case of out of sight, out of mind that I have ever seen. Grace was left in this foster home for 20 years. As the Farrelly commission said, and as the Minister said in her statement, for years on end there were no visits from any social care workers. She was literally left in that home. Despite very serious allegations being raised by other families in relation to Mr. X, yet she was left there. It was not just the Grace case.”
“I welcome that we have an opportunity to debate the commission’s findings. I have spoken to a number of people who care for Grace and an organisation that has cared for her in recent years. She is in my mind today. From the conversations I have had, Grace is now getting very good care. She is a lovely, beautiful person and she is in all of our thoughts today. The Minister is correct. I sat on the Committee of Public Accounts, which examined this, as did other Members of this House. It was one of the most appalling cases I have ever come across. I listened to the account of the whistleblowers who came before the committee when I was a member and told of the harrowing experience of Grace in that foster home for 20 years. I will never forget hearing some of the really awful accounts coming from those whistleblowers.”
“One set of children is waiting for surgery, in pain and agony, when other children have been put through unnecessary surgeries and are now in pain, neglected and failed by the State. There is culpability for clinicians and the people who must be held to account. However, the previous Minister for Health knew last May about what was happening in respect of osteotomies, yet action clearly was not taken. I accept, as the Minister said, that a full report must be published. We know for certain at this point that these issues will go beyond the period from 2021 to 2023. That is the main point we are making with our motion. There will need to be a deeper dive into these procedures because I have no doubt, unfortunately, that this will be a massive scandal. We should not be talking about this today but we must because of what happened.”
“Those incidences were out of kilter with European averages and there were concerns about the quality of the surgeries and the care given to children. The draft report also comes on the back of years of struggle for children and their parents to get the surgeries they need for their children with scoliosis and spina bifida. It is ironic that we are having a debate about surgeries that were carried out unnecessarily on children when other children are waiting for their scoliosis treatments and their spinal curvatures have, in some cases, got to the point where they are inoperable. It is unbelievable and difficult for parents to try to get their heads around that.”
“We have now been here debating Children's Health Ireland, children's healthcare and, in particular, the children's hospitals for five hours. That says it all about the failures we have seen in children's healthcare at those hospitals. The Minister is right when she says that the report into hip dysplasia has not been published. She is waiting for the full report to be published, but a draft report was leaked. It is out there and has been for some time. That draft report raised serious concerns. As bad as it is, it cannot be seen in splendid isolation because, as we know, it comes on top of the HIQA report into the use of unauthorised springs. It comes on top of the Nayagam review, which is still ongoing, and the very high levels of returns to surgery and infections that children had.”
“How many letters were sent out? We do not know. Parents do not know. How long does this go back? Is the Minister now so worried about this that we cannot simply rely on an audit that looks at a random sample over three years when we know that this could potentially be a much bigger scandal affecting and impacting many more children? I ask the Minister to consider our motion, look at what we are proposing, implement it and do everything that she possibly can to protect those children.”
“I implore the Minister to meet all of those families. It is important that there be a face-to-face meeting. If it is taking place, then I welcome that but I am just making the point that those engagements with families are important. We have to understand where those families are coming from. All of the reports I have seen - there have been many, including from the Ombudsman for Children - referred to failures in communication. In all of these issues, there is a pattern of failures. There is also a pattern where Children's Health Ireland has simply not communicated properly with families. I have a number of questions for the Minister. She mentioned the audit, which covers from 2021 to 2023, but this issue goes back much further. I received an e-mail today from a family whose child had an osteotomy in 2010, yet they got a letter.”
“There has to be accountability in CHI as well. We know similar issues arose where there were complications and children with scoliosis and spina bifida had to return for surgery. These are now under review in the Nayagam review. That still has not been published. It is the same people, it is the same culture and it is the same failures. There was also the unauthorised non-medical grade springs that were inserted into three children. Again, it is the same problems, the same surgeons, the same failures, and the same issues. I was contacted by one of the advocacy groups today on behalf of one of the three families whose children had the springs inserted. They said they had reached out looking for a meeting with the Minister and that she had offered a phone call but not a face-to-face meeting.”
“This is going to be difficult. As we and others have pointed out to the Minister, many people got second opinions. Dozens of such cases have been brought to our attention. When people got a second opinion, they were told that their child did not have the condition and did not need the surgery. When we read the letters - I am assuming the Minister received similar letters and we have sent some to her office - they talk about the procedure itself. Essentially, the surgeon must cut into the child's bone. It is very invasive surgery. To think that a lot of children did not need those surgeries is absolutely breathtaking. Obviously, culpability and responsibility has to be taken in the first instance by the surgeons. A report that will land on the Minister's desk - I hope soon - will point out where the failures lie.”
“Despite all of the calls and demands that have been made by families and advocacy groups on the issues they raised over a long number of years, they felt they were met with a wall of resistance. They felt they were going up against a brick wall. I thank an Teachta Brian Brennan for the heartfelt contribution he made about his own experience in the earlier statements. Unfortunately, I have dealt with far too many families over the past weeks and months since the hip dysplasia scandal first arose after being published in The Ditch . An Teachta Doherty and others have also been inundated with emails. Some of the people are parents of children who had surgeries. Obviously, they are the people we have to be most concerned about now because they do not know whether the osteotomies their children had were needed. They are still in the dark.”
“In our earlier debate, I said that trust was at the heart of our healthcare system and that people needed to have trust in all health services. They need to have trust in hospitals, in clinicians, in the people who run our hospitals and, of course, in the politicians who oversee all of that. When it comes to Children's Health Ireland, trust has completely broken down. It did not break down overnight. Parents have been dealing with years and years of long waiting lists and scandal after scandal. It has rocked people's faith in our children's hospitals. This is not to disregard the large amounts of good work being done by many people who work in children's hospitals, but look at the list of failures, the litany of scandals and all the reviews that are taking place.”
“I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes with alarm the results of a clinical audit conducted on children's hip surgeries performed on children under the care of Children's Health Ireland (CHI), which: — audited 147 cases across 14 surgeons across 3 institutions for the period 2021 to 2023, namely CHI at Temple Street, CHI at Crumlin, and National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh; and — found that, of those audited, 60 per cent of the surgeries at Temple Street were not indicated, 79 per cent at Cappagh were not indicated, and 2 per cent at Crumlin were not indicated; further notes that: — not all of these surgeries were conducted through the public system, but that many were conducted privately with even less oversight of care; — many parents sought second opinions and that there are cases where the second opinion considered that not only did the child not require surgery, but that the diagnosis was incorrect; — this malpractice has occurred under the watch of several Ministers for Health, who have failed to properly oversee the effective delivery of children's healthcare in this State and have instead operated at arm's length; and — a final report into this matter has yet to be completed nor published; furthermore: — considers that a surgery conducted in circumstances where it is not clinically indicated according to best practice standards is an unnecessary surgery; and — acknowledges that any surgery can be a traumatic experience for a child and their parents; recognises that: — potentially tens of thousands of hip surgeries have been conducted at these institutions over the last decade, and that parents of children who had these surgeries are left in the dark and wondering whether their child suffered an unnecessary surgery; and — condemns the fact that there was no disclosure of these concerns and incidents despite the Minister for Health being made aware as far back as May 2024 and until the publication of the clinical audit by the Ditch media outlet, and that these concerns were kept hidden from parents and Dáil Éireann; further recognises: — that these revelations come at the same time as the completion of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) investigation into the use of non-medical grade implants in several children, which found severe governance and institutional failures at CHI; and calls on the Government to: — conduct an extensive review of orthopaedic surgical practice at CHI to uncover the extent of unnecessary surgeries on children, and to determine why these surgeries were conducted and whether a profit motive was involved in any of these cases; — provide certainty to all parents of children who have had orthopaedic surgical practice at CHI; — hold those responsible for these failures to account, at an individual, organisational, and political level; and — ensure that as we transition into the new Children's Hospital that it provides the best quality care with the highest standards of governance, management, ethics, open disclosure and communication between families and medics.”
“It pointed out some very serious management and governance failures in CHI. These issues need to be grappled with and dealt with. There has to be accountability for individual wrongdoing and for institutional wrongdoing but there also has to be political accountability. I want the new hospital built as quickly as possible but we must make sure we get it right. We have to do much better by the children of the State.”
“For those of us who use the health service, we have to put our faith in clinicians, we have to put our faith in doctors, and we have to put our faith in a government that will make sure systems are fit for purpose so that children in particular get the very best health care. When trust breaks down in a hospital, it is a real problem and a real challenge because parents do not know what to do. They do not know if they can accept the opinion they are getting. Parents tell me all the time that they need a second opinion because they simply cannot rely on the information they have received because of all the scandals in the hospital. This is a real difficulty. I will just make one final appeal to the Minister. The HIQA report looked at the use of non-medical grade springs.”
“This parent said that the child had received no follow-up care over the years and she does not know what happened to her child. There are other instances where people got second opinions. We have had many examples of that. They went privately, got a second opinion and were told not only did the child not need any surgery but the child did not have the condition at all. We have a lot of those. This paints a very dark picture and a really big problem. Parents feel in the dark. They are worried about their children. They are worried about unnecessary and traumatic surgeries. This creates uncertainty, worry and fear. We all depend on good governance and good management.”
“That was the wrong way to treat parents and children. Parents only found out after The Ditch published the draft audit report back in March. Then a flurry of letters was sent out to parents, which has only raised more concerns and heightened the fear. The letters said there was nothing to worry about and that follow-up appointments would be scheduled. The follow-up appointments, however, are not happening. Parents have contacted me about surgeries that took place as far back as 2010. I received one message from a parent today where a child had a surgery back in 2010. We are told the audit covers a time period from 2021 to 2023, yet letters are being sent to parents of children concerning procedures going back as far as 2010 and possibly further.”
“These concerns alone show why many families and advocates have been raising concerns themselves about CHI for years, why trust in CHI has been shattered, and why many of us - those parents and advocacy groups across the State and those of us in opposition - will have a view that the board of CHI should be stood down and a new team should be put in place. If these scandals were not enough, it seems that the biggest scandal in children's healthcare in a long time has come to light. Potentially hundreds or even thousands of children have been given unnecessary hip surgeries at CHI going back over a decade. This scandal came to the Government's attention a year ago but the then Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, who was informed in May, did not take the appropriate action. Concerns were hidden from parents until the news broke.”