Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Fuaireamar amach inné gur seoladh litreacha chuig 2,260 teaghlach faoin scannal tubaisteach maidir le hobráidí chromán na leanaí. Tá tuismitheoirí fós feargach nach bhfuil an t-eolas ón Rialtas ná na hospidéil á thabhairt dóibh. Yesterday we learned the scope and scale of the devastating hip surgery scandal. Some 2,260 families have been sent letters. I raised this issue on Leaders' Questions two months ago in March. I called on the Government to get ahead of it and to tell parents what was going on. Parents are still being kept in the dark, even today. What does it say about the Government that facing into this scandal, it took two months to even ask CHI how many children were affected and how many letters have been issued. The Taoiseach this week was still trying to downplay these letters, suggesting they were issued to reassure parents on the back of a media leak of the draft report. That is nonsense. These letters were sent out to implement an early recommendation of the draft audit. The recommendation calls for the recall of all these children for follow-up.

Why is CHI implementing an early recommendation of the draft audit? It is because the draft audit is shocking, devastating and damning. It states that 60% of surgeries in one hospital and 80% of surgeries in another were unnecessary. Let what that means sink in for a moment.

Children as young as one years of age have had their hips opened up, cutting into their bones. They have had to learn how to walk again. They have been left with scars for their life, and now we find out that these surgeries may have been unnecessary. Imagine having to bring your two year old little girl into that operating theatre, having to leave her in the hands of the system, only to find out that the surgery, the pain, the learning how to walk again and that scar she has on her hip was never necessary and the surgery did not need to happen. That is the experience of so many parents out there. It is the experience of one mother who I spoke to this morning. In 2015 she brought her little girl, two years of age, for surgery on her right hip. It was the only hip that was ever mentioned in all the assessments. After the operation she was told that she needed surgery on the other hip as well. She described feeling like a rabbit in headlights, but like any parent would, she followed the medical advice and after five weeks her daughter had the second operation. When this letter dropped in her letter box seven weeks ago, she was immediately concerned. She sent 30 emails over a period of five weeks to CHI without one response. Only when she got her solicitor involved did she get a response. She sought a second medical opinion. She is now sure that the first hip operation, at best, was premature and the second operation was not needed at all. She is frustrated at the lack of answers from CHI and from the Government. This is not an isolated case.

Every family I have spoken to over the last two months are looking for one thing more than anything else. They want to know if the surgery that was carried out on their child was necessary or not. The audit is not going to give them that answer. It is an anonymised study. It will not give them the individual answer. The Government is asking parents to wait. It is asking them to trust the process but trust has completely broken down. I have a simple question for the Government today on behalf of parents who have contacted me, Deputies Cullinane and Carthy and many others in our party and across the benches. Can you tell me that for every single one of those 2,260 anxious families, every one of their children will have access to an independent clinical assessment that will answer the simple question for them as to whether their child was operated on necessarily or unnecessarily? When will they be given access to that clinical assessment?

I asked the Government two months ago to get ahead of this. It is not fair that it has left families in this situation for that period.

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