Dessie Ellis (Dublin North-West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Proper healthcare for children is crucial as it lays the foundation for their future well-being, development and success. It enables them to grow into healthy and productive adults. Good healthcare supports their physical, mental and emotional development. Proper investment in children’s health also benefits society by reducing future healthcare costs and promoting healthy lifestyles from a young age. Unfortunately, children’s healthcare in Ireland has faced major challenges and those who suffer as a consequence of these challenges are the children themselves.

A stark reminder of how bad children’s healthcare in Ireland is can be seen in a recent HIQA report on governance and oversight of surgical implants at Children’s Health Ireland hospitals. The report revealed shocking levels of failure in the form of poor patient outcomes in spinal and orthopaedic services. It also highlighted a number of safety concerns whereby CHI failed to adequate safeguard children during spinal surgeries where non-CE-marked springs were used. It is hard to believe the report also discovered key approval processes and safety checks were not properly applied. This resulted in the use of non CE-marked springs. Such springs should have undergone rigorous testing and assessment but this did not happen. Despite this they were still used in scoliosis surgeries. Many of these issues are a consequence of inadequate oversight at CHI. This lack of clear accountability resulted in a failure to apply key approval processes, policies and safety checks for the use of these implants. The report further identified other failures, especially in communication, where it was found staff in the operating theatre were unaware a new spring was being used alongside conventional surgical implements and families were not fully informed about the experimental nature of the intended surgery. All of this put children at risk of harm.

The HIQA report put forward 19 recommendations for both corporate and clinical governance as well as proper oversight of implantable medical devices. Fundamentally, the HIQA report reveals systematic failures within CHI's governance structures that would have insured the safe and appropriate use of implantable medical devices.

This is what led to the inappropriate use of non-CE-marked springs, as well as a lack of transparency with both patients and parents.

See this speech in context