Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The waiting times for children with scoliosis are not acceptable and they have to be brought down. One of the first places I went when I was appointed as Minister was Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin and I met the orthopaedics team there for exactly this reason. Good efforts have been made and an additional consultant is in place. Things have been greatly exacerbated by Covid, as we know, and by the cyberattack but we cannot let that stop the progress that has to be made. I am working closely with the HSE and the Department and critically, with Children's Health Ireland, CHI, to look at the current barriers, be they the work force, surgeons, operating theatre capacity or operating theatre nurses. Some of the children, as the Deputy is aware, have complex cases that need a team of consultants and much pre-operative work. We have to be clear in Dáil Éireann that the current situation is not acceptable for these children or their parents and that everything that can be done must and will be done to help them.

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