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Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Deputy, ask whatever questions you want, but your line of questioning now is-----

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: -----to undermine an internationally renowned paediatric orthopaedic surgeon we are bringing in to do this review. It is entirely up to you to do that. You are, of course, free to try to discredit the reviewer.

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I would suggest to you, Deputy, if I may, because you have just said something that really-----

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: -----is not very helpful, and I will respond, if you do not mind. Mr. Nayagam was specifically identified by the chief clinical officer. It was important to the chief clinical officer that this would not be someone who was just a spinal orthopaedic expert. It was important that the totality of paediatric orthopaedics was reviewed. It was important that was done by someone who has broad...

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I just want to be very clear on this, if I may. This is important, because Deputies have quite rightly spoken about trust. The reviewer does have the clinical expertise to conduct this review. I most certainly do not.

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: That is a very fair question. The question around generalists, specialty, subspecialty as well as the amount of work and patients in that is a very important one. It is one that the reviewer will look at and provide advice to me and, in turn, to the Oireachtas on.

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: What I can say is that he has not been suspended. There are clinical protective measures that have been put in place, including as part of the consultant contract. Some of them are contained in the reports. For example, having a second surgeon involved when there is complex surgery is one of them. The surgeon is currently not doing any clinical work, but it is important to say, and I do...

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: It is absolutely clear, and we do not need any report to tell us this, that non-medical materials should not have been used. That is a given. The Irish Medical Council is in a formal process. That is a legal process when it comes to the review of clinicians. We have to let that process go through.

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: So, we know the rate of complication is higher than would have been expected internationally. However, there have been no findings at this time that have been made against this surgeon.

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. What I can tell him is this: the springs that were used were not authorised for medical use, which is very serious. We do not know - the review is now establishing this - how that happened in terms of procurement and getting into theatre. There are protocols for checks on everything that is used in theatre. Exactly how all of that happened is being established right...

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. It is a very fair question. The answer to that is that there are extensive patient safety and clinical governance mechanisms in place in all our hospitals to do with every procedure. In this case, two serious incident reviews have been kicked off. They will be reporting very shortly. They have done extensive work on what happened in two particular cases. Concerns...

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I will have to check. Let me answer the question directly again to be absolutely clear. I was informed of this issue, and my date might be slightly wrong, I believe on 4 August.

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I will have to check and I will have to check if his officials passed on those comments, as that would normally be what is done. Again, the details to CHI that allowed them to find what it was the Deputy was pointing to happened in the second week of July. It was discovered in the following weeks, when they looked into it, and I received a report on it on 4 August. I then asked a series of...

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I will have to take a look at the parliamentary question answer. The chief clinical officer got a copy of the report in July, a copy of the report will have been sent to me in August, there was a disclosure process gone through with the families and then there was a proposed publication date after full disclosure had been gone through with the families. The report in The Ditchwas ahead of...

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: On the parliamentary questions, I know this is never satisfactory, and I got the same answer when I was on that side of the House and I never found it particularly satisfactory. However, I receive about 15,000 to 20,000 parliamentary questions a year, so colleagues will appreciate that none of us can write all of our own responses to every parliamentary question. However, I am responsible...

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: I am very open to an external review telling me whatever it finds. What I can tell the Deputy right now is that this is the first time I have heard this. This is the first time I have heard about an FOI. The clear advice I have been given is that there were serious patient safety incidents, the protocols were followed, the patients and the families were engaged with and I was informed. To...

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: That is not what I said at all. What I said is that there will have been communication between officials and advisers between the Department of Health and the Department of the Taoiseach. I believe there was communication in July and August and, obviously, in September, and we can provide a full timeline as to those exact communications.

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, I do.

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: It is important to say, though, that we receive 20 to 30 of these patient safety incidents on an ongoing basis. Yes, it is worthy of communication. There was communication, I believe, in July and August, and the Taoiseach and I obviously spoke about it in person in September.

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Stephen Donnelly: Again, that is not what anybody has said. I have the transcript between Deputy Murphy and the Taoiseach and I have looked at that. I became aware of the issue with the springs in August. It was not part of either of the reviews. It would appear, based on everything we have seen, that CHI and the reviewers did not know there was an issue in terms of these springs not being medical grade...