John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney.

By way of giving some background detail, hospital care for children is provided in Dublin at three hospitals: Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, and the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght. The priority of the Health Service Executive and hospital management is to ensure that services for children at each hospital are maintained at an optimum level.

Scoliosis is a very distressing and disabling condition for young patients and their families. Corrective surgery for scoliosis is carried out where it is clinically indicated. Last year, the HSE and the paediatric hospitals put in place measures to assess the clinical position of children with scoliosis attending Our Lady's Children's Hospital with a view to determining the most appropriate treatment in each case, including surgery where indicated. Those children requiring surgery have had their pre-operative assessments completed and surgery has been assigned based on clinical priority.

To date in 2010, in excess of 125 scoliosis procedures have been carried out in Our Lady's Children's Hospital and approximately 30 have been undertaken in the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street. Some 46 patients are currently on the waiting-list for treatment in Our Lady's Children's Hospital.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund has agreed to fund eight paediatric scoliosis surgery cases in 2010. The surgery will be carried out in Cappagh hospital; Our Lady's Children's Hospital is at present working to identify the patients who will be treated under this arrangement. The three hospitals are continuing to work together to address these issues. In addition, the HSE has informed me that a working group involving the three hospitals and chaired by the HSE is working on all the processes involved in treating children who have scoliosis and require surgery. That group is working to ensure the best use of resources in the three hospitals to address this issue. It is also working on the involvement of other hospitals outside Dublin in the case of patients who have been operated on to help increase the surgery rates in the three Dublin hospitals concerned.

Preparation for corrective surgery for scoliosis includes pre-operative assessment and may involve HALO traction. HALO traction is used in preparation for spinal surgery. It involves fitting a frame to the head, neck and body in order to immobilise the area. Patients may be in traction for six to eight weeks before they are ready for the next phase of treatment, which is the actual surgery.

Treatment of this type requires extensive physical space around each bed and, as a result, only a limited number of patients can be treated at any one time. Our Lady's Children's Hospital currently has two patients in HALO traction.

In terms of the specific case mentioned by the Deputy, I am not aware of the full detail and I do not want to give any false commitments because there is a waiting list but the reply is a standard reply and I would prefer to have a meeting with the Deputy some time tomorrow, if that was suitable to her, to discuss the case in more detail. I emphasise it is not at my discretion to allow someone jump a waiting list but there are more important aspects to the Deputy's presentation than is contained in the response and therefore I would like to discuss it with her some time tomorrow afternoon.

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