The Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD has called on the former CEO of Children’s Health Ireland Eilish Hardiman, to resign from her position as CHI’s Strategic Programme Director, in light of the multitude of scandals which have engulfed the organisation in recent months.
Speaking today, party leader Peadar Tóibín TD said:
“In recent months, there has been a review into the use of unauthorised springs in children with scoliosis, an audit on the threshold for hip surgery and a leaked internal report on “toxic” work culture and potential misuse of State funding to tackle waiting lists. Each of these issues, taken singularly, are scandalous, but taken collectively should result in resignations at the top. These scandals mostly date to a time when Ms Hardiman was at the helm. It is extraordinary that at the moment dozens of children languish in excruciating pain on scoliosis waiting lists for the lack of surgery, and at the same time hundreds of other children have been put through possibly damaging and painful unneeded HIP surgeries”.
Deputy Tóibín continued: The management of these scandals has been as scandalous as the scandals themselves. Their follow up communication with parents has been abysmal. The government and CHI gave parents enough information to put the fear of God in them, but not enough information so they can understand what happened to their child. The review into Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip, or DDH, found that the majority of children who had pelvic osteotomy surgery at CHI Temple Street and the National Orthopaedic Hospital in Cappagh did not meet the threshold for surgery based on the criteria used for the audit. Some children who underwent surgery for developmental dysplasia for the hip (DDH) at the two Dublin hospitals may not be seen for a review of their care until next year, with only 60 of the 500 children seen thus far. This is an enormous cruelty to worried parents who are wondering if their child warranted surgery at all.
“A random audit of 147 children who had hip dysplasia surgeries across Temple Street, Crumlin and Cappagh hospitals between 2021 and 2023 was published in recent weeks. It found 60 per cent of these procedures at Temple Street hospital did not meet the clinical criteria for surgery. All child surgeries are serious. Mothers of children who underwent hip surgeries have been speaking out – in one case the child wound up back in hospital and required a blood transfusion due to post-surgery complications, in another case a surgery was unsuccessful and the child went from being able to walk to requiring a wheelchair, the parents of these children need clarity on whether those particular surgeries were necessary or not”, concluded Tóibín.
