Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

At the outset, I want to take the opportunity to offer my deepest condolences to Harvey Morrison Sherratt's family and his parents, Gillian and Stephen. No words of condolence or consolation to Harvey's parents are enough. It is an extraordinarily traumatic thing to happen to any family, but in these circumstances even more traumatic in terms of the experiences the family and Harvey had with the hospitals and the clinical world itself, and it is unacceptable. The Minister met with the HSE and CHI board and has been working on this issue non-stop since she was appointed Minister for Health. The Minister has asked for a multidisciplinary report on the chronology from CHI regarding its involvement in Harvey's care and the key milestones as recorded on the CHI's hospital records. The HSE CEO received this draft report in August and has shared that report with Harvey's parents as well as with the Minister for Health. My understanding is that the Minister for Health and the Tánaiste are due to meet Harvey's parents in the near future.

I understand fully the anger and the absolute frustration felt by the parents and by other families who do not receive surgical intervention at the right time for their child. I have spoken to Antoinette Burke since I met her earlier this week. We have arranged to meet. I do not want to get into discussing individual cases here in public, but clearly the issue there is one of clinical decision-making and the judgment made by clinicians. Clinicians, it seems, have taken a decision not to do surgery over many years in that case on a clinical basis. Obviously, any parent wants to do the very best for their child. It seems to me that the interaction or engagement between the clinical decision-making and the position of parents is one that has to be improved. Certainly, however, the question was put to me about the use of the word "emblematic", and I made that point in the context that if we look at, and I have read, the case in relation to Katie and Antoinette, there is a very clear disagreement in respect of the clinical judgment that consultants have made in that case. That said, I am going to pursue this. We have spoken to the CEO of the HSE in relation to this case also.

On the broader issue of scoliosis, very significant resources have been allocated by Government to CHI. There is no point is saying there have not been; there have. The issue is that the translation of those resources to outcomes and outputs is a key issue for us.

There have been a number of reports into CHI. All Deputies are aware of that. We are not happy with everything that has happened in CHI. We have an issue in that one consultant has been referred in respect of the utilisation of devices that did not meet the quality mark. We are awaiting a report on governance in CHI. The Health Service Executive has strengthened its service level agreement with CHI and is giving stronger supports to it. That process will continue in terms of underpinning, supporting and creating additional capacity in CHI in the immediate future and the time ahead. That is the direction of travel in respect of services, in particular spinal services, at CHI.

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