Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Ar dtús báire, aontaím go bhfuil sé seo an-phráinneach agus gur ábhar buartha é. Is olc an scéal é an rud atá ráite ag an Teachta McDonald. Is é an príomhrud ná go mbeidh an audit cuimsitheach agus go mbeidh sé againn chomh luath agus is féidir. At the outset, this situation is extremely serious and has necessitated an external audit. That is the first point. For any child to go through surgery is in and of itself a trauma. For parents it is also a trauma. If it emerges that children went through surgery that was not required in the first instance, that will not only be very traumatic in itself but a scandal. It is important we await the completion of the audit and its presentation to the Minister. I spoke to the Minister yesterday. She has not received any final draft or the completion of the audit. I have spoken to the Minister and she made that point to me. That then makes it very difficult all around, in terms of commenting in a piecemeal way or on an individual case or a case-by-case basis. I am not in a position to do that until the full, comprehensive audit is finalised, presented to the Minister and the Government and obviously shared with this House, as it will be.

The Deputy is correct that CHI and Cappagh hospital have issued letters in recent weeks to families who may have concerns to provide information and so forth but, ultimately, it is the completion of the report that is key here. I understand there may have been drafts or whatever published, in The Ditch or elsewhere. I do not know. I cannot speak about the provenance of that other than to say the sensible thing for us to do is to enable Mr. Thomas and facilitate them to complete the report as quickly as possible given the anxiety and concerns that are undoubtedly out there. It is accepted those concerns will be there for families whose children will have gone through this particular surgery over a significant period of time.

I understand the audit process is in its final stages. Feedback on the draft report has been received, I understand, by the expert author and is being reviewed. We simply have to assemble all the facts on a comprehensive basis, await the outcomes of the clinical audit and then decide on actions resulting from the outcome of that. The entirety of what took place needs to be understood and laid out fully and transparently. We would then follow through on actions that would be necessary.

There are multidisciplinary teams in place in these hospitals in terms of pre-operative decision-making right across CHI and Cappagh hospital. That process commenced from March onwards. The hospital authorities are obviously taking on board the concerns and so on. It was raised initially via a protected disclosure in September 2023 relating to different thresholds for surgery being applied in CHI and the national orthopaedic hospital in Cappagh. The Department was notified in 2024. The clinical audit, as the Deputy knows, is being conducted by Mr. Simon Thomas, consultant surgeon to the staff of the children’s orthopaedic unit at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. We simply have to await the completion of that.

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