Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Hundreds of parents are today living the nightmare of the prospect that their children were operated on unnecessarily. On foot of whistleblower allegations, an audit was carried out into paediatric hip dysplasia surgeries at three Children's Health Ireland hospitals. The audit, which has been published in full on The Ditch website, found that hundreds of children who were operated on between 2021 and 2023 did not meet the threshold for this surgery. It recommends that 561 children be recalled and independently assessed. This is very serious.

We have received dozens of emails and phone calls from parents since my colleague an Teachta Pearse Doherty raised this scandal in the Dáil on Thursday last. Parents are at their wits' end having received letters from Children's Health Ireland to inform them of the audit. The parents were provided with an email address in those letters, but many are telling us that they are emailing and getting no response. They are also ringing but getting no answer. This is heaping stress on top of stress.

One mother contacted us to say that she had received two letters because her twin daughters were three years of age when they had surgery in 2023. She stated:

It took them months to recover, to learn to walk again, not to mention the agonising pain each of them were in and the sleepless nights crying in pain. We want to get to the bottom of how they could put vulnerable children through this.

A second parent wrote:

One of my daughters had both hips done and we have received a letter. I am sick with nerves at the outcome of this. Families deserve to know sooner rather than later.

Another mother states her daughter had the surgery in 2023, days before her third birthday. She wrote:

I am heartbroken to think I put my little girl through so much pain if there was never any need for it. She had to be lifted and carried for over a week after the surgery. She was afraid to go to the toilet the night and day after surgery, she was in so much pain.

We know of cases where parents sought a second opinion when their child was scheduled for surgery and, incredibly, were told that not alone did their child not need the operation but also that they did not in fact have hip dysplasia at all. Parents of children who had operations a decade ago are also receiving letters. There is now a genuine fear that these practices were going on long before 2021. I would like to know how many letters have been issued. I want to know how many children have been affected.

Parents are angry that Children's Health Ireland will conduct the follow-up assessments because they have completely lost confidence in that organisation. Who could blame them? Children's Health Ireland is an organisation mired in scandal. The controversies pile up and the Government sits on the sidelines incapable of getting a handle on things. Tá na céadta tuismitheoir buartha gur chuireadh a bpáistí tríd obráidí tromchúiseacha gan ghá ag CHI. Ní mór don Rialtas na freagraí atá ag teastáil ó na dtuismitheoirí seo a fháil dóibh. The Government needs to get on top of this. What action has it taken to uncover the full extent of this scandal? For how long has it been going on? How many letters have been issued? How many children are affected? Crucially, when will parents be told whether their children were operated on unnecessarily?

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