HEALTH MINISTER STEPHEN Donnelly has said that children waiting on spinal surgeries for long periods have been “failed by their own country”. 

As of September, about 284 children were on the spinal surgery waiting list, with over 100 of those beyond the target of four months waiting time.

“No one can stand over what has happened these children,” the health minister said in a wide-ranging interview with The Journal before Christmas.

His comments come after the HSE announced in the autumn that it had commissioned an external review into elements of paediatric care at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) at Temple Street after one child died and others suffered serious complications following spinal surgery there.

Concerns around the post-operative outcomes of several children with serious spinal conditions were raised earlier this year. All of them had been operated on by a surgeon at Temple Street hospital in Dublin. The use of a spring-type device used in surgery is also being examined.

Donnelly told The Journal that he still has not been given a “satisfactory answer” as to why waiting lists have not come down. 

In 2017, then health minister Simon Harris made a commitment during a committee hearing that no child would wait more than four months for spinal surgery in the country.

In 2022, Donnelly allocated €19 million with an aim that it would translate into no child waiting more four months unless clinically indicated that they should.

Despite there being a “very significant increase in activity”, with more staff, beds and  operations taking place, the waiting have not come down, according to the minister.

“I still don’t have a satisfactory answer from CHI as to why that was,” he said. 

The increase in waiting lists could be explained by some private patients going on to the public list and additional referrals from other parts of the country, said the minister. 

Due to one consultant involved in the surgery controversy essentially ceasing work, that also had an impact on activity levels, Donnelly said, adding that there are not many surgeons in the country that can can do such complex work.

“I am not satisfied that everything that can be done has been done, at all,” said Donnelly.

The health minister said that other regions in Europe, like Stockholm, have dedicated pediatric spinal services with dedicated theatres and dedicated beds.

While Donnelly said there is now one dedicated theatre in Crumlin, the minister states the beds can often be taken up with competing demands in the hospital. 

“My view is we need a dedicated spinal service with the theatre, the theatre teams and the beds and the nursing staff, dedicated to pediatric spinal. That’s certainly the view of the consultants I’ve spoken with,” he added.

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Donnelly said he has asked for “some pretty serious changes” in terms of the governance of the service across CHI.

“It’s clear to me that it hasn’t worked between Temple Street and Crumlin,” he said.

The minister questioned whether the services properly integrated after they merged into CHI.

“I think there were ongoing legacy issues between those two sites,” he added.

“All of that now has to be resolved. It has to be achieved. These children who have been failed by their own country No one can stand over what has happened to these children,” said the minister, who added that he had ”mixed view” on the CHI response.

Donnelly said the clinicians deserve great credit for the increased activity, which he said is important to acknowledge. However, he said questions still remain as to why the waiting list is not falling. 

The minister said he is “not satisfied” with the answers from CHI as to why the resources the government funded and allocated have not brought down the numbers.