Professor Damian McCormack:

A junior trained to do this level of work who was then put into Galway alone with no support would not last. The last orthopaedic surgeon appointed to Galway lasted a couple of years and has come back up to Crumlin, leaving Galway with nobody. It is not about fixing one element; it is about a systemic fix and an intelligent approach to this. We are significantly deficient in skilled appropriately trained paediatric orthopaedic surgeons. We do not have trainees in the pipeline. I am aware of one person who might decide to do it but of 60 or 70 trainees, the majority will just do adult surgery because it is easy. They can go into private adult surgery, which is even easier. That is not a competitive process; they can wander up to a private hospital and get a job. We are competing against our adult orthopaedic colleagues for trainees and for resources. We are coming out now for the first time saying that we need to compete for this. We need to change some of the models of training so that we can train our own people and populate paediatric orthopaedic units around the country.