Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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407. To ask the Minister for Health the number of children that have been diagnosed with thoracic scoliosis and are awaiting corrective surgery; the rate at which surgeries are currently being progressed; the details of those waiting on a six monthly basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8130/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Long waiting times for scoliosis surgery have to be addressed, and the Department has been working closely with the HSE to address services pressures, particularly in Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin, which is the largest provider of scoliosis surgery for children and young people.

Additional funding has been provided in recent years to develop the paediatric orthopaedic services, including scoliosis services. €2m was made available under the Winter Initiative Funding in 2016 and over fifty additional patients have been treated to date under this initiative. As a result of investment, we made some progress but there is much more to do to provide the level service that is needed.

I recently met with the CEO of the Children’s Hospital Group and of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin (OLCHC) to discuss immediate action that can be taken to reduce waiting times for children and adolescents with scoliosis.

While the new theatre in OLCHC was commissioned in 2016, it is only now being used for scoliosis surgery due to challenges with recruiting nurses. The hospital has undertaken an aggressive recruitment drive to attract new theatre nurses with the necessary paediatric training. As a result four new nurses will be in place by April. A further 16 international nurses have been offered posts, and have commenced the registration process. The recruitment of these nurses means that the new theatre will be used to provide the additional capacity for scoliosis procedures in OLCHC from April. This will allow an additional day of procedures to be carried out in the medium term. I am advised by OLCHC that an orthopaedic surgeon post in the hospital will also be filled by June. This means that from July, the hospital expects that the theatre use will be further increased. In addition I will receive an Action Plan for Scoliosis from the HSE by the end of February which will take on board the concerns of the advocacy groups.

In relation to the specific issue raised by the Deputy regarding the waiting list and waiting times for children for scoliosis surgery and activity levels in hospital across the country, as this is a service issue, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly.