Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I share the Deputy's concern. I had a long call last week with a parent of one kid with serious complications. What the children are going through is unimaginable, as is what the parents are going through as a result. I have told the parents that we will sort this out. We are working directly with CHI to understand exactly what the bottlenecks are. Some of this can be solved through resourcing. We have some fantastic surgeons in this country and we have to make sure they have the operating theatre time they need and that we have full theatre teams. These are highly specialised teams and we have to make sure the pre-operative and post-operative capacity are in place for these operations, particularly for the most complex ones. We also have to make sure that the multi-disciplinary teams are available. We both know that for some of these children it is not just about having an orthopaedics teams ready to go on the day; multi-disciplinary teams have to be in place. For me and all of us in here, this is a top priority. Funding is available and we are working to understand what the bottlenecks are to make sure these children get the treatment they need and deserve.

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