Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I think this is the first opportunity I have had to engage with the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, since he took up his appointment, so I welcome the opportunity to do that and welcome him back to the Seanad.

I will begin like Senator Seery Kearney. Joanne Rodgers's email will form an awful lot of my remarks because they are impactful. While probably a lot of what I will say has been said by Senator Seery Kearney, it will not do any harm to reassert her words and, through Joanne's words, the lived experience of so many families. I am very conscious of that. I am very conscious that when Jim from my office asked Joanne whether she would mind if we shared her story, it is not just their story alone and that, as other colleagues have said, this is the experience, unfortunately, of so many others.

Callum Rodgers is nearly three years old. He was born on 19 February 2019, and at around six months his parents noticed that something was not right with his back. He was referred to Temple Street Hospital. There, Mr. Connor Green diagnosed Callum with early onset idiopathic scoliosis. Callum was initially placed in a cast on two occasions, but the doctor moved speedily to carry out spinal rod surgery. Callum has been on the waiting list for his first set of rods since February 2021. Then the curve in the child's back was about 55°. The family do not know what it is today but they do know that it is worse. Callum's mother, Joanne, sent an email describing her son's worsening condition. She said:

As the curve continues to increase in magnitude, ... [it] will shorten Callum's life period. We were originally told he would be seen no later than July/August. It is now November and we still have no date. The wait is agony as I hope you can imagine. We live in limbo with constant uncertainty, worry and stress. Callum is so small. Every day that passes is a lost opportunity.

...

Callum does not have time on his side. Growth is not his friend. We have some of the very best surgeons in the world. PLEASE let them do their job before they ... [move] elsewhere to do it.

Ms Rodgers's emotional email is about her son but she also makes it clear in the email that he is not alone. She says, "Callum like many more children needs help now." There are nearly 44,000 children with orthopaedic conditions such as scoliosis, spina bifida, cerebral palsy and hip and limb deformities. Callum's mother specifically appeals to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and Paul Reid, the CEO of the HSE, for funding for Temple Street Hospital, where Callum is being treated. Nearly five years on from the Ombudsman for Children's highly critical report on failures to treat scoliosis in a timely fashion, these professionals on the front line are still saying there are deficiencies in specialist staffing levels, access to and the number of surgical theatres and a lack of safely staffed paediatric critical care and high-dependency beds.

When Callum's doctor, Mr. Green, attended the Joint Committee on Health a few weeks ago, his remarks were hard-hitting and alarming. He described a dysfunctional system, inadequate to the task and in a chaotic state, which is "failing our children". He rejected claims that this was so because of the pandemic or the cyberattack because the shortcomings were there before both, although the pandemic and the cyberattack have made a bad situation worse. It is quite clear from what we are being told that not enough has been done in the past four or five years to boost capacity in paediatric orthopaedics for the treatment of scoliosis, spina bifida and other conditions. Children like Callum and many more are being left in pain, waiting too long for treatment and up against cancelled procedures because of a lack of reserved beds. Long waits and cancellations, along with the conditions themselves, have a real psychological toll on the children affected and, of course, their families. Mr. Green said we need to resource our ICU staffing better, we need to ring-fence an intensive care bed before elective surgery and we need to support our intensivists and recruit more of them in order to look after patients afterwards. He also urged the Government to be honest with the families of children facing scoliosis and other orthopaedic problems and not to mislead them that the prospects of improving the system can be done by next year. The families are carrying enough emotional pressure and stress without false hope being added. Mr. Green said he fights one day at a time and tries to get to Friday.

I urge the Minister of State and, through him, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to listen to Callum Rodgers's mother and other families like hers, to listen to Mr. Green and other professionals like him, to collaborate with them and implement a credible plan for the more than 44,000 children and their families and to end the widespread uncertainty and worry by resourcing the health service and the professionals to do the job we all know they are not only keen to do but more than capable of doing.

As other colleagues have said, we need no more retrospective statements. We need a timeline outlined. We need the Minister for Health to meet with the families and listen directly to their concerns. As has been said, and as I am sure all colleagues across the House will agree, we just need to help these children. I do not want to play an emotional card. The Minister of State has a job of work to do in his Department, and I appreciate it is not an easy one, but there are children suffering out there and we are being told that constantly. Their stories are being shared. We know historically the damage it does when we let generations of children suffer. I would have thought that as a society we have woken up to the trauma and the harm that does transgenerationally. While I appreciate entirely that these are different circumstances, the fundamental issue remains the same. There are people out there who are in need of urgent help and who are worthy of our help and, because of that, we really need to do more to act now.