GILLIAN SHERRATT SAID the language in a protected disclosure over the care of her son Harvey (9) was “disgusting” and made her feel as if he had been written off.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Gillian welcomed the Tánaiste and Minister of Health’s decision to bring a memo to Cabinet recommending a statutory public model of inquiry into the care of children with scoliosis and spina bifida.

She and Stephen Morrisson had a meeting with the Ministers yesterday following The Sunday Times reporting that a whistleblower made a protected disclosure to the HSE that Harvey, who had spina bifida and scoliosis, was “mistakenly taken off the waiting list because he was deemed to be in palliative care”. 

“It was disgusting to think that someone would talk about our child in such a regard,” Gillian said today.

“The language contained within the protected disclosure was like a gut punch. I don’t see how it could be done accidentally. I feel like they wrote him off.”

Harvey eventually had the surgery in December 2024. However, despite his overall health improving after surgery, he suddenly deteriorated eight months later and he died on 29 July.

‘Briefly discussed’

Gillian said the protected disclosure was discussed “only very briefly” at yesterday’s meeting due to legal limitations.

Yesterday Taoiseach Micheál Martin said neither he, the Tánaiste or the Minister for Health were aware of a protected disclosure having been made to the HSE about Harvey’s care.

“The Minister for Health stood fast in her stance that she hadn’t seen it. But my concern  is that there’ll be other children that may have also been wrongly labelled as palliative that are still alive, that may not survive, if this isn’t addressed quickly,” Gillian said.

She said now that her main concern with an inquiry isn’t how fast it is done but how effective it is.

“We need to really get to the root of the problem so that we can address it going forward, because what we don’t want is history to repeat,” she added.

Yesterday Harris and Carroll MacNeill described the meeting with Harvey’s parents and the advocacy groups as “collaborative and constructive”.

“It is the intention to bring a memo to Government recommending a statutory public model of inquiry,” they said in a statement.

They said a considerable body of work will be required and a facilitator will be appointed to scope the content of potential terms of reference in collaboration with stakeholders.

With additional reporting from Eimer McAuley