Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think it is helpful for any of us to be discussing certain elements without having the full facts. I appreciate fully and agree with the Deputy that families want all of the facts. They want the information and they do not want it piecemeal. They certainly do not want parts of an unpublished document being published elsewhere and not coming through the Minister or not having that direct engagement with the Minister, CHI or the other hospitals involved.

The most important thing is to have the review completed. The information that has been provided to me is that the Minister for Health has been told she will have the review next week. I do not have the exact day, but as soon as the Minister has it next week and is able to, she will engage with the families first and foremost. She has recently spent quite a number of hours in the Dáil answering questions, not just on this, but on many other issues as well. There has never been any doubt that the Minister does not want to engage, does not want to talk to families or does not want discuss this matter in the Chamber.

To go back to the basic facts here as we have all outlined, there is not a single one of us who could even comprehend what it is like for a family to believe or know that their child has had a surgery the child did not need. As a mother of two young children, the very thought of that is terrifying. I apply that to anybody who has children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews. We all want to make sure that we get to the bottom of this, that those who need any further clinical assistance get it and, above all, that the practices that have to change do. That is what is happening already. While we need to ascertain the facts for the families involved, it does not prevent us from starting work on looking at why these practices were carried out and how to ensure that surgeries happening at the moment are not applying the same practices. That change is taking place already. For any surgeries at the moment, there is a multidisciplinary team that sits down, looks at the cases and then decides whether to go forward. That is really important progress that has been made.

In terms of the letters, it is important that families have communication throughout all of this. There is piecemeal information being put out there and, in my understanding, it was the Minister who asked for the correct figure to be put out there, as it was increasing and decreasing. We now have that figure because it was asked to be put into the public domain. That alleviated some of the concerns around the increasing numbers overall. We have established helplines or email addresses for patients to make queries: there is ceo@childrenshealthireland.ie and cappaghkidsenquiries@nohc.ie. These are dedicated email addresses that have been put in place for families to be able to communicate separate to the letters they have received, which very clearly state that if they have not had engagement from their hospitals, follow-up or engagement in the past year or 15 years, we will engage with them and reach out to them.

There are a number of strands. I appreciate that it would be better if everything was happening at once. The review is looking at exactly what has happened. Separately, CHI has given an element of information to be able to engage with those families and to make that communication at the very outset, which is set out as best practice. Third, work is under way in our hospitals to make sure that anything that the same practice is not being applied to anything that is happening now and procedures that are in place. Of course, once this report is received, the first thing the Minister will do is reach out to the families and make sure that she can engage with them on the facts and information that she has.

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