Norma Foley won't 'pre-empt' Health Minister on whether CHI should be fully subsumed into HSE

NORMA FOLEY HAS called for “root and branch” change in the governance of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) but said she won’t “pre-empt” a decision on whether to subsume it into the HSE.

Over the weekend, HSE CEO Bernard Gloster said that fulling subsuming CHI into the HSE would be one option considered amid concerns around clinical care and governance.

The CHI hospital group is a distinct entity from the HSE, although it is funded by the HSE and accountable to it.

CHI controversies

In the latest controversy involving CHI, an audit last week identified that many children underwent “unnecessary” hip surgeries in two Dublin hospitals.

The clinical audit of dysplasia of the hips surgery in children found that a lower threshold for operations was used at CHI Temple Street hospital and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh (NOHC) than the threshold used at CHI Crumlin.

Elsewhere, Gloster said he was “shocked” by claims a consultant misused the state’s waiting list system, resulting in delayed operations for sick children.

This was in relation to a report in the Sunday Times on unpublished findings that a consultant breached HSE guidelines by referring patients he was seeing in his public practice to weekend clinics that he was operating separately.

The consultant was paid €35,800 via the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which aims to cut waiting times by paying private practices to treat patients on public waiting lists.

However, a 2021 internal CHI inquiry found the patients selected had not waited longest, and so did not qualify for the consultant’s appointments.

Gloster said he was “shocked” by the report and “even more shocked because nobody has told me about it”.

The HSE CEO said if there was any evidence of misuse of public funds he would refer the matter to the gardai.

‘Shocked and appalled’

Norma Foley, Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, said “all of society has been shocked and appalled by what is now in the public domain”.

She noted recent resignations within CHI but added that “we need to have stability”.

Foley said that Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill “is taking the advice of the Attorney General in terms of governance and what opportunities there might be to change the system that’s there, but that’s a body of work”.

Foley added that it was “absolutely shocking” that Gloster was unaware of the internal CHI investigation about claims a consultant breached HSE guidelines on waiting lists.

“There needs to be an entire root and branch in terms of governance, because if there isn’t confidence around governance, there isn’t confidence around what’s being delivered in the service.”

When asked if the CHI should then be subsumed into the HSE as a result, Foley said she was “not going to pre-empt the minister”.

“The Health Minister has said she has an absolute open mind as regards what will happen – perhaps it will be the HSE that will take it over, perhaps there’s other opportunities.

“From a legal point of view, she’s quite correct to take the advice of the Attorney General to see what options are open to her.

“But government is very clear, as is the Minister, that a root and branch is to be done here, a system put in place where there is accountability, where parents and families and children can have confidence in what’s being offered.

“It’s utterly unacceptable and worrying what has transpired in the last number of days.”