Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The timing of this debate is quite opportune. It is entirely a coincidence, but I am having a meeting with the chief executive officer of Crumlin hospital in the next couple of hours about orthopaedic surgery, because it is acknowledged to be a problem.

At present, 12 children have been waiting longer than a year for scoliosis surgery, which is really unacceptable. However, when we consider projected demand, we can see that it will be necessary to increase the number of cases carried out per year from approximately 58 to 120. It is easy enough to deal with 12 cases, perhaps, but there will be more going onto the list after them, so we must almost double capacity for scoliosis surgery in Crumlin. I do not know enough about how the surgery or after-care work to be able to state whether it could be regionalised. The risk of doing something in two centres rather than one is that there might not be specialised staff in both centres all the time. Perhaps it is or is not doable, but this is something I am aware of and about which I am concerned. We certainly cannot allow a situation to develop whereby children's scoliosis is getting progressively worse, to the extent that they are starting to develop respiratory and neurological problems. I understand that is happening.

Needless to say, I am personally concerned about this and I hope it can be addressed in the context of the service plan for next year.

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