Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank the families, the advocates and the children in the Gallery for taking time out to fight for healthcare services. People should get the healthcare that they need. They should not be on long waiting lists. They should not be waiting over a year to get healthcare.

It is a national scandal that we are here tonight. We have been here before. Children with scoliosis are being failed in such a brutal and inhumane way by the State. Every day, week and month that goes by with children on waiting lists for necessary operations as their conditions get worse, their discomfort and pain increase and as they head towards a point where they cannot be operated on is an absolute scandal.

I got many different emails from parents. I will quote one, to give a picture of what that looks like, as parents and as a family. It states:

On a personal note, our own son is waiting for scoliosis surgery and was due to have it back in August 2022. We have had to blue light him by ambulance multiple times now because he couldn't breathe and his oxygen levels were dangerously low. He had his first case of pneumonia at only 2 years of age, and he's even ended up in ICU because his breathing was so bad. His ribs are quite literally crushing his lungs thanks to this scoliosis and yet he is sat on a waitlist, and is having zero monitoring of his condition.

That is an indefensible scandal to have happening, not once but multiple times, in our country. The Minister did not really attempt to defend it, which is fair enough. I agree that it is indefensible, but it is as a result of political choices that we have reached to this point. That is undeniable. It is political choices that have resulted in us not providing adequate necessary care for these children. Different political choices need to be made. They could begin to be made this week in terms of passing the motion from Sinn Féin. Part of that would involve establishing a task force, making sure that the advocacy groups and the parents of those affected are fully involved and then investing the resources to deal with this, to get through the waiting lists and to ensure that they do not build up again.

There obviously is a context to this, which is the revelations a number of months ago where you had a group of people badly failed by the State, more than 100 children who had at that stage been on waiting lists for more than a year, neglected and not listened to, and then these really shocking revelations indicating that some of the children had standards of care that were substantially less than what they should be expecting with high complication rates relating to a particular surgeon, high reinfection rates and the insertion of unlicensed metal springs. All of that potentially relates to the behaviour of an individual consultant or surgeon. That is true, but there are also institutional issues. How this could have happened, namely, how springs could have been brought into operating theatres and been inserted into children, speaks to wider institutional cultural issues and governance issues within CHI. In addition, the response to this, the fact that the advocacy groups do not have confidence in CHI's response in terms of the second external review that was established, spoke, understandably, to the deep distrust that these families have of CHI. There are clearly suggestions that there are children waiting longer as a consequence of that surgeon not performing surgeries. If that is the case, that also speaks to an incredible institutional failure to be so reliant on one individual to perform these surgeries. Even if we did not have these very serious allegations and a suspension, the individual in question could have an accident. He could get sick. Many things could happen. We should not have a system based around the fact that only one person can do these very complex cases. All of those issues need to be addressed and are some of the things a task force should do.

I have questions about what is happening in terms of the investigation into the use of those springs and into the high complication rates. I wonder whether simple things have been done by either the HSE or CHI. Have springs been purchased? Were they tested in terms of whether they are safe to be in a human body for an extended period? What happens if they are in a human body for an extended period? I hope that the HSE or CHI, which are working together, are addressing some of those issues.

I want to refer to the replies I received from the Minister to a number of parliamentary questions I tabled.

7 o’clock

A former patient of this surgeon has contacted me with concerns about her treatment. She was an adult in Cappagh hospital and was asking about her treatment and whether it would be included in this investigation. The answer from the parliamentary questions is “No”. If there is a question mark over the standard of surgery provided by one surgeon, why would we assume that only applies to children in their care. Why would it not involve others? Even if it is not being included in this external review, there are issues the Minister needs to return to.

I reiterate the point that political choices have led us to this point. Different political choices need to be made. We need a task force. We need action. None of this needs to be the way it is. Children do not have to be on waiting lists, in positions of torture for extended periods of time.

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