Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)

9 o’clock

As a parent, I cannot recall the number of times that my wife and I brought our children to the children's hospital for various accidents or illnesses. Never for one second did I think I would not implicitly trust the doctors and consultants. One cannot but be shocked at these cases involving children, where parents have sought second opinions. In some cases, the second opinion has suggested that not only does the child not require the surgery but the diagnosis was incorrect. As we have heard, there might be thousands of cases similar to this. We can only imagine how parents are feeling and how angry and shocked they must be.

Constituents of mine received two letters, one for each of their children. They contacted the hospital immediately on that day, 19 March, and are still awaiting contact from the hospital. I read the first line of the last paragraph of the letter that was sent to the parents. It stated that CHI's priority was always the safety of its patients, ensuring timely access to quality care, and that it had engaged in a clinical audit. CHI's priority is always the safety of its patients, ensuring timely access to quality care. It speaks volumes that CHI sent that letter to those parents, and inserted that line, when we consider the situation that is going on at the moment. Everyone will take what was inserted in that document with a pinch of salt. We need action. If people need to be held accountable, we must ensure they are. Tens of thousands more parents will be bringing their children to a hospital in the weeks, months and years to come and we need to ensure they have confidence in the doctors and consultants when they talk about serious operations such as those these children have undergone.

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