Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this very important issue. On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, I welcome the opportunity to address the House.

I sincerely regret that children can experience a long waiting time for scoliosis treatment and I remain conscious of the burden this places on them and their families.The priority of the Minister for Health and the Government is to improve waiting times for all patients accessing hospital treatment, and reducing paediatric waiting lists for orthopaedic procedures remains a priority within that. The Department, the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, are working on a multi-annual waiting list plan to address waiting lists and bring them in line with Sláintecare targets over the coming years. This process will be overseen by a ministerial task force, chaired by the Secretary General of the Department and including representatives from the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund. It will take the learnings from the achievements of the vaccine task force to inform the plan.

To support the work of the task force, an additional €250 million is being provided in budget 2022 to improve access to care across the health system. It is recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been impacted in the past 19 months as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic and, more recently, as a result of the ransomware attack. The cyberattack in May 2021 in particular caused significant disruption to the orthopaedic service and all services across the Children's Health Ireland, CHI, hospital group. Without access to a patient's full history and previous diagnostic investigations, it was not considered safe to proceed without all electronic support systems in place. This impacted patients with complex needs in particular and restricted the patient cohort that could safely proceed without surgery during this time. Most systems are now back up and running across CHI sites, but backloading of information is ongoing, and this continues to have an impact on waiting lists and the numbers of surgeries completed.

Despite the impact of the pandemic and the cyberattack, Children's Health Ireland advises that as of the end of September 2021, 266 spinal surgeries had been carried out, which is an increase of 41 compared with the same period last year. CHI has remained committed to increasing activity levels and examining innovative measures to improve access to all specialties. For example, additional theatre sessions are being held in Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital for non-complex, age-appropriate orthopaedic patients. CHI also continues to develop the advanced clinical triage model in Citywest. Active clinical triage is a system which has been adapted for use within the paediatric orthopaedic unit at CHI Crumlin. Its purpose is to reduce the overall orthopaedic outpatient waiting list, starting with the longest waiting clinically appropriate referrals.

A new orthopaedic consultant with a specialist interest in neuromuscular conditions started in Temple Street in September, which should also enable the use of additional theatre capacity and support additional capacity as part of the Cappagh kids programme. Officials in the Department of Health remain in regular contact with CHI regarding scoliosis services, and CHI has advised that all patients with a diagnosis of scoliosis require a preoperative work-up prior to spinal surgery, including multiple diagnostic investigations and a review by a multidisciplinary team. The plan of care, which is implemented for each patient, is tailored to best meet a patient's clinical requirements. It is the responsibility of the treating consultant to prioritise patients clinically on the waiting list for surgery.