Dáil debates
Thursday, 3 December 2015
Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions
Hospital Waiting Lists
9:55 am
Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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4. To ask the Minister for Health the action being taken to address the unacceptable waiting times for surgical intervention to treat scoliosis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43126/15]
Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I am fully cognisant of section 6 of the Health Service Executive (Governance) Act 2013. For that reason, I will not refer to a specific individual in putting this question. The objective of the question is to get the Minister to profile his plans to deal with the unacceptable waiting times for scoliosis interventions. Will the Minister tell me why children have been waiting up to three years for such interventions from the HSE?
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government is working to ensure long waiting times for scoliosis surgery are reduced. It is focussing on additional resources and capacity to carry out this surgery. Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin is the largest provider of scoliosis surgery for children and young people. Additional funding was allocated in 2015 for additional consultant posts, including two consultant orthopaedic surgeons, as well as an anaesthetist and support staff, at Crumlin. Capital funding has been provided for a new theatre on that site to expand theatre capacity further. This theatre will be open in the spring. In the interim, patients from Crumlin are being transferred to other hospitals in which capacity is available, where that is clinically appropriate. Temple Street Hospital has taken some cases. Cappagh Hospital is being used for older kids. Patients are also being transferred to Tallaght Hospital and the Blackrock Clinic, where it is being paid for privately. Recently, external capacity has been identified at the UK Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore near London. These measures have more than doubled capacity for this surgery for patients on the Crumlin waiting list in 2015. Two consultant orthopaedic surgeons have recently been appointed at Galway University Hospital to support the spinal service there. In the short term, the authorities in Galway are actively working to assign dedicated beds to support this service and exploring the potential to refer some patients out for surgery. The HSE is continuing to work with the children’s hospital group, the Saolta hospital group and the individual hospitals to identify all options to increase capacity further to improve access times for surgery.
Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister will be aware that there is no national screening service for the onset of scoliosis. The curvature of the spine is probably first observed by a general practitioner or family member. Waiting lists and waiting times are increasing significantly. I have been advised by an orthopaedic surgeon that immediate intervention is required beyond the age of 16. It is next to pointless for an acute intervention to address the progressive nature of scoliosis. Children have been languishing on waiting lists for over three years. The interventions they are waiting for would not be considered lightly by families. It is a serious operation. What are the Minister's plans to accelerate the waiting times? It appears that the waiting times in the HSE west area are out of kilter with those elsewhere. There is a three-year wait for an intervention to address the chronic and acute nature of this condition.
Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you, Deputy.
Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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This is not an elective procedure. There are children who are begging the Minister for operations.
Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I will let you back in again.
Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister to be more specific. What plans does he have to ensure people are taken off the waiting list in Galway?
Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Sorry, would you recognise the Chair, please? There are other Deputies with other questions.
Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I notice that, a Cheann Comhairle.
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The number of operations done every year needs to be increased substantially.
Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Yes.
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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That is the only solution. There are barriers to that. Appropriately qualified consultant orthopaedic surgeons and theatre nurses need to be recruited. There needs to be sufficient theatre time and theatre space. I met the consultants in Crumlin who are the specialists in this area quite some time ago. They agreed that a whole new theatre was needed in Crumlin to provide additional capacity there. That is now under construction. Work is being done to staff the new theatre, which should be open in the new year. It will allow us to double capacity for children's orthopaedic surgery in Crumlin. This development is taking place even though an entire new hospital will be built in a few years time. The situation is so serious that we cannot wait for the new hospital to be completed. That is why the new theatre is being built. Efforts are under way to staff it. In the meantime, other hospitals that can help out are helping out. Temple Street Hospital, for example, is taking three patients. Stanmore Hospital near London is taking patients. That is important too. Some cases are being sent out privately to be done in Blackrock. In regard to Galway, I have asked my Department-----
Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Sorry, Minister, I will let you back in again.
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Okay.
Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I would like to speak about the human cost of not intervening. This is an intervention. I am aware of the case of a young woman who used to be a grade A student, but has had to miss 70 days of school in this academic year. At the age of 16, she is a user of the mental health services in Galway as a consequence of having spent three years languishing on a waiting list. I ask the Minister to ensure a national screening programme is introduced to enable us to intervene at an earlier juncture of somebody's life. If young people who are dealing with the scourge of scoliosis get the interventions they require, they will have an opportunity to live the most successful lives they can under these circumstances. Greater investment in taking people off waiting lists and getting them to Crumlin will be required to facilitate such interventions. The Minister referred to Crumlin, Cappagh and Blackrock, but I am talking about the case of a young woman in the west of Ireland. The Minister and I are both familiar with the case. This young woman, who used to be a grade A student, has collapsed while waiting for an intervention. It is completely unacceptable that HSE west has not made progress with this case to ensure she has an opportunity to live a successful and equal life like any other child of her age. She is not being given such an opportunity as a consequence of the mismanagement by HSE west.
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Again, it is not appropriate for me to comment on individual cases. We do not know the details of all the individual cases that exist out there. There may be cases of people with greater levels of need.
Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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Have they been waiting since March 2014?
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am sure Deputy Keaveney would not want to be personally responsible for deciding which cases should be prioritised and which cases should not. I am not going to make such decisions either.
On the west and Galway specifically, one thing that might make sense is a national list. It does not make sense that children in the Galway region should be waiting longer than those in the Leinster region. I have asked my officials to discuss the issue with the HSE and the children's hospital group. Any time a low volume of surgery is being done, there are concerns about that and about whether any surgeon should be doing only a few types of operations every year. It is something I have asked my officials to investigate. As I said, everything is being done to double capacity for this type of surgery this year. London, Blackrock and other hospitals are being used. Everything that can be done, within reason, is being done to address this very serious problem.