FAMILIES OF CHILDREN who underwent hip surgeries at Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital have been told that only one parent can attend the follow-up assessment for their child that Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) promised. 

An independent audit released last week confirmed that the majority of these surgeries didn’t meet the criteria for surgery. 

The audit found that out of 70 surgeries performed at the Cappagh Hospital, only 21% met the standard criteria for operating. 

CHI and HSE officials subsequently said that they wanted to give parents the opportunity to find out if the surgery their child had at the hospital had adversely impacted them, and if it was necessary in the first place. 

One family who received a letter from Cappagh Hospital, which has been seen by The Journal, were invited them for “an appointment” at the Cappagh Kids Outpatient Department but were told that “only one parent is to accompany the child”. 

No other details about the nature of the appointment were supplied in the letter, though it provided contact details should parents have further queries. 

Una Keightley, the co-lead of the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy group, said that parents objected to only one parent being allowed to attend. 

Keightley further said that it is “vitally important that a parent and at least another parent or another person for support can attend the appointment.” 

“That’s because it can be an overwhelming experience for the family, and there may be discussions that need to be had without the child in the room. In Ireland Gillick competency shows that children around the age of 16 can consent to medical procedures. 

“If a child is approaching that age, the parent may decide that they want to give the information to the child about whether their surgery was necessary or not outside of the hospital environment, with the support of psychologists. This is to avoid a situation in which the child may refuse all further medical care in the case that their surgery was performed unnecessarily,” Keightley further said.

The letter doesn’t provide further details on nature of the ‘appointment’ being offered with a single orthopaedic surgeon.

Families are calling for an independent clinical review of their child’s care, and full in-person clinical assessments to be offered in the first instance.

Families who were contacted about the hip surgeries by CHI in the course of the independent audit met on Sunday to discuss the follow-up treatment their children may need, and their views on the information that was released on Friday. 

CHI did not meet with any of the impacted families before releasing the audit, and a hotline was operated over the weekend to answer families’ questions. 

In a joint statement, parents who attended the meeting have addressed concern about the fact that Bernard Gloster, the CEO of the HSE, has proposed a “two-step review process”, including an initial review by CHI clinicians, and a secondary review by an external panel appointed by the HSE. 

They said that the first stage would only delay “meaningful review and support”. 

The group expressed their disgust over having to learn the final details of the audit from the media rather than from CHI and the HSE. They also said that in their view, the provision of a hotline to the parents over the weekend was a “PR exercise”. 

“Several parents who contacted the helpline on Friday reported that they were not informed that the call was being recorded,” the statement said.

Some families were later contacted to be informed that they had been recorded. 

The parents said that they do not have any “confidence” in CHI or the HSE, “the very bodies that oversaw the system in which the harm occurred”.

Parents also expressed serious concerns over multiple outstanding issues, including the review process that is underway being CHI led and the fact that the surgeons who carried out the surgeries have not been named. 

Parents are now calling for a clinical review of their child’s care in the first place to be carried out by a panel of international paediatric orthopaedic experts, with a minimum of 10 years’ experience and qualifications equal to or exceeding those of Irish consultants. 

They are proposing that a core group of parents will liaise with the relevant authorities to ensure that the panel has the “full confidence of families”. 

The parents want the panel to be called the ‘Parental Ratified Independent Scrutiny Mechanism’. 

Through this panel, they want to see their children offered a full review, a current clinical assessment, an evaluation of whether their child’s past surgical interventions were “justified”, and the ability to order all necessary testing, such as MRIs or gait analysis “within weeks”. 

The parents are also demanding that a full public inquiry into CHI takes place, “specifically into the systematic governance failures that resulted in preventable harm to their children”.

At least 1,800 children who had hip dysplasia surgery are to be medically reviewed following surgeries at the Cappagh and Temple Street children’s hospitals.