LAST UPDATE | 13 May

HEALTH MINISTER JENNIFER Carroll MacNeill has said it is “really important” that Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) confirm how many families have been sent letters over the hip surgeries their children have had. 

An independent review into hip surgeries in children who had developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) surgery was announced last year.

An anonymised sample of the hip surgeries, between 2021 and 2023, has been undertaken into operations that took place at CHI hospital sites, as well as the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Cappagh.

However, opposition parties have accused the government of “stonewalling” parents and leaving them “in the dark” over the audit and have called on the minister to clarify when the audit will be published, amid concerns that thousands of children could be impacted. 

Carroll MacNeill confirmed that letters had been issued to parents whose children received hip dysplasia operations at CHI hospitals since 2010 “to provide reassurance and information about the audit and to ensure all potential cases are included”.

Opposition has called on the government to clarify how many families have been issued letters, stating that this data is being withheld. Concerns have been raised that children who had hip surgeries up to 15 years ago have received correspondence. 

Speaking about the matter this evening, the health minister said it is up to CHI to confirm that number, stating: 

“I am going to use every power that I have to make sure that they do that. I will be requesting that they publish that number. There is no reason not to.”

She went on say that that he thinks it is “really important” that CHI and Cappagh confirm the number of letters they have sent.

The minister said the most important thing is the report which will be published which “will give us all a much better stead on the next steps that we must appropriately take”.

During Leaders’ Questions, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said her party had been raising the matter with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris “for weeks now”. 

“We did so because we had been contacted directly by parents literally at their wits end, having received letters from CHI regarding operations their children had 15 years ago,” McDonald said.

“We have been raising this with you, conscious of all of those parents who are now asking themselves, was my child operated on unnecessarily? How could this have happened and what are the consequences now?”

Parents ‘stonewalled’

She said both Martin and Harris had so far responded with “non-answers” and had given “neither information nor reassurance to parents”, accusing the government of “ducking, diving and dodging”.

“You have refused to give clarity, and so parents have been stonewalled by CHI and stonewalled by your government,” McDonald said. 

She asked the Taoiseach to clarify how many letters have been issued to parents and how many children will be recalled.

In response, Micheál Martin accused the Sinn Féin leader of being “somewhat disingenuous here”, adding that nobody was “stonewalling”.

The obvious thing to do is to wait for the audit report to be published and given to the Minister. That’s logical.

“Otherwise, all you’re asking for is drip drip, bits of information here and there, which only adds to the anxiety and concern of parents.”

Martin confirmed that the audit has not yet been completed, but he said it is at “a very advanced stage”.

“It’s understood that the audit author has received final feedback and fact checking from the clinicians to whom the draft report set was circulated. We all know that is standard procedure and respect of audits of this kind.”

Martin continued: “We don’t have a final timeline from the HSE or CHI on when the -report will be fully complete and provided to the Minister.”

He said that CHI and Cappagh had issued letters in recent weeks to families and patients who have had hip dysplasia procedures since 2010.

“Those letters went out after media reporting of a draft audit report, and it was found necessary after that to communicate to parents as a result of a draft report. The Minister can’t comment on that because the Minister hasn’t received a report.”

‘Implications are disturbing’

The Fianna Fáil leader acknowledged that there is “a lot of anxiety and concern” about this issue.

“A lot of parents would be worried, because for a child to go through an operation or surgery is very traumatic for a child and very traumatic for the parents. Anything we do in here must be done with that in mind.”

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Asked again about the issue by Aontú leader Peadar Tóibin, Martin said that the possible implications of the report are “disturbing”.

The implications are disturbing, if indeed some of the assertions come home to be the case, or emerge to be truthful.

“I think there are issues already, as I outlined in an earlier reply, changes to practice and protocols has occurred in terms of multidisciplinary approach, in terms of pre-operative assessment, and that clearly wasn’t there, it seems, in advance of this.”

He said he appreciates that the absence of information “can compound anxiety for parents”.

“That is why it’s important that we get the complete audit and that we are in a position to share it with the parents, with the families, and indeed, with the Oireachtas also and the public at large.”

He said an action plan would then be implemented and published “to deal with that” and “to work with parents and with patients.”

When asked by Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice why there was no deadline for the publication of the audit, Martin said he would not “play politics”, adding that the “deliberate politicisation” of the issue is “reprehensible”. 

Speaking to reporters outside Leinster House this morning, Rice, who is the chair of the Oireachtas Health Committee, had urged the Minister to clarify when the audit would be published. 

Rice said parents and the Dáil have been “left in the dark” over the issue, adding that there is “a lot of worry”. 

“We need to know when the report is going to be published. The Minister needs to come forward and set a date for that, provide some clarity and certainty for parents and families and those affected. That needs to happen straight away,” he said. 

Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín said thousands of parents across the country “may potentially be caught up in this particular scandal”.

“Really, the Minister should be sitting down with all the parents who possibly could be caught up in this particular crisis, and ensuring that they know what’s happening in the process. That’s not happening at the moment,” he said.