Dáil hears allegation that children's hip surgeries at CHI may not have been needed
Mr Doherty spoke of allegations that the children's hip surgeries were conducted solely for financial gain. File picture
The Government is not dealing with an audit of children’s hip surgeries through Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) as urgently as it should, the Dáil has heard.
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty has accused the Government of not moving quickly enough on the audit, which is examining the criteria for a specific type of hip surgery in young children.
The audit has raised concerns as to whether or not surgeries – for hip dysplasia – were needed by the children involved. This is separate to an ongoing review of spinal surgeries at CHI.
Families of the children who underwent hip surgeries at CHI are being offered follow-up checks, with parents being advised that they will be contacted with appointments if necessary but that this is “not urgent”.
Mr Doherty spoke of allegations that these hip surgeries were conducted solely for financial gain, saying that this would be “absolutely shocking and a great scandal”.
“We are talking about children between the ages of one and seven. It would be disgraceful for any medical professional to decide to put a child through the pain and trauma of surgery if it was not necessary,” Mr Doherty told the Dáil.
The draft report was published by the Ditch website, outlining that there were 561 children who underwent surgeries between 2021 and 2023.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe acknowledged that the audit is nearing completion, with clinicians providing “final input” into the report.
“I am certain that, when the process is complete, this work will be shared with the Department of Health, the hospitals and those who lead them,” Mr Donohoe said.
Mr Donohoe said that once this is done, families impacted would receive the report's conclusions and that it must acknowledge “the distress and worry that many face”. He added that the Government would look at what further actions may be needed to respond to the consequences of the surgeries.
“We will need to understand if and why this happened in the first place and what the consequences of it are. The hospitals, the minister and the Government will take this as seriously as the House would expect,” Mr Donohoe said.
“It is all about ensuring that any surgical practice that took place during that period was carried out in a way that was consistent with international standards and the care that any family would expect when entrusting our health professionals with a child's care.”
During the exchange, Mr Doherty asked Mr Donohoe to “imagine for a second that he was the parent of one of these children who were operated on”.
Mr Doherty asked:
The Sinn Féin TD told the Dáil that one woman had contacted him over the matter, outlining that their daughter was only four when she went through the operation.
“She says that she is sick to her stomach that her daughter might have been operated on unnecessarily. She says that it is a horrifying situation to be in as a parent,” Mr Doherty added.
Mr Donohoe said that families need to be able to trust health professionals who are caring for their children.
Meanwhile, the Dáil also heard calls for the Government to stop breaking the law over school places not being provided for children with additional needs.
Independent TD Seamus Healy said that there were “hundreds of children without a school place for next September”, while also raising the long wait times for children to get assessments of need.
In response, Mr Donohoe said that education minister Helen McEntee was working to make more special classes available across the country.
“We recognise the huge anxiety that can cause and we know that September after September, this is an issue for too many families," he said.
