Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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51. To ask the Minister for Health the action that is being taken to address the unacceptable waiting times for surgical intervention to treat scoliosis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42988/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government is working to ensure that long waiting times for scoliosis surgery are reduced. The focus is on additional resources and capacity.

Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, 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, anaesthetist and support staff at Crumlin. Capital funding has also been provided for a new theatre on site to expand theatre capacity further.

In the interim, patients from Crumlin are being transferred to other hospitals where capacity is available and where that is clinically appropriate. These include Temple Street, Cappagh, Tallaght and the Blackrock Clinic. External capacity has also been identified at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore in the UK. These measures in total have more than doubled capacity for this surgery for patients on the Crumlin waiting list in 2015.

Two consultant orthopaedic surgeons have also been appointed recently at Galway University Hospital to support the spinal service there. In the short term, Galway is 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, Saolta Hospital Group and the individual hospitals to identify all options to increase capacity further to improve access times for surgery.