Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome those who are here in the Gallery. It is telling that they feel they have to bring their children to this Chamber to try to get their message across. I remember when Deputy Simon Harris was Minister for Health, we were talking about a task force for scoliosis and spina bifida. I think that is eight years ago at this stage. It tells you the progress we are making. I am someone who has had a personal story about scoliosis. I have a cousin who had it and I was quite close to the family while they were going through that. That is more than a few years ago. He is a young man now and thankfully has had his surgery and is doing terribly well, but the delays were inordinate and he suffered greatly. When we look at patients who were in distress, we all want to do something. If you are there by the bedside of anybody, you feel like you want to do something. How is it that we can travel eight, ten or 12 years and be making such slow progress?

The waiting lists are indicative that what we are doing is not working. In his opening remarks, the Minister highlighted his concern about the €19 million he had made available and that it appears not all of it was directed at the area which he had hoped. Surprise, surprise. Hospital management teams, when they are short on resources, will direct resources, when they become available, where they feel they will be expedient. A task force to look at this whole area is very much required because what we have done is not working. I do not like reviews that are not independently chaired and managed. I suggest to the Minister that what he is talking about with the new management policy that he announced will not be sufficiently independent.

I have never heard comprehensive statements made about the idea of taking scoliosis and spina bifida patients out of the country for treatment. I understand there is a significant cost and that there is a significant wrap-around service post surgery, support for the families and so on, but surely in light of waiting lists of three, four or five years for spinal surgery this is something we should look at properly.

How confident is the Minister in the strategy he has outlined delivering? I applaud the fact he is optimistic about it but it needs to be done from the outside looking in. I do not believe in insider views looking out. He will find that if the €19 million he directed has gone astray, it has not gone into anyone’s pockets. It has gone towards trying to resource other emergency services in the hospitals. What is more, that is probably not enough. That begs the question of how much the Minister is planning to put in to a new initiative for spina bifida and spinal surgery.

The motion calls for the best use of international services. I know another theatre has been opened in Temple Street.

Again, I ask the Minister if that is enough. The Minister has highlighted that he has sought to put more money into Cappagh hospital. I am not sure the expertise is there, so I suppose we will have to wait until the new children’s hospital is open. It seems to me that is being put forward as the panacea that will solve all of these problems in paediatric care. I put it to the Minister that it will not until we get dedicated teams on the ground.

We will have to bring in outside specialists in the meantime. You cannot just magic up orthopaedic surgeons who have the ability to carry out spinal surgery, as well the Minister knows. That is one of the problems. We should be looking at a model whereby we bring in people, if necessary, from the United States on short-term contracts and pay them the exorbitant money they will demand to deal with these waiting lists, to satisfy the needs of children who cannot afford to wait any longer and to take the stress off families and parents who, at this stage, must be asking themselves what they have to do to receive adequate care in this State.

I support the Sinn Féin position on an external task force. That is the very least in what must be done.

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