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

The Government is working to ensure long waiting times for scoliosis surgery are reduced. It is focussing on additional resources and capacity to carry out this surgery. Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin is the largest provider of scoliosis surgery for children and young people. Additional funding was allocated in 2015 for additional consultant posts, including two consultant orthopaedic surgeons, as well as an anaesthetist and support staff, at Crumlin. Capital funding has been provided for a new theatre on that site to expand theatre capacity further. This theatre will be open in the spring. In the interim, patients from Crumlin are being transferred to other hospitals in which capacity is available, where that is clinically appropriate. Temple Street Hospital has taken some cases. Cappagh Hospital is being used for older kids. Patients are also being transferred to Tallaght Hospital and the Blackrock Clinic, where it is being paid for privately. Recently, external capacity has been identified at the UK Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore near London. These measures have more than doubled capacity for this surgery for patients on the Crumlin waiting list in 2015. Two consultant orthopaedic surgeons have recently been appointed at Galway University Hospital to support the spinal service there. In the short term, the authorities in Galway are actively working to assign dedicated beds to support this service and exploring the potential to refer some patients out for surgery. The HSE is continuing to work with the children’s hospital group, the Saolta hospital group and the individual hospitals to identify all options to increase capacity further to improve access times for surgery.

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