The Aontú leader, Peadar Tóibín TD, has branded as “scandalous” the fact that the Minister for Health doesn’t know how many children have been removed from the CHI Scoliosis surgery waiting list without their parents’ knowledge, despite Simon Harris Dáil promise to look into it twelve months ago.
Deputy Tóibín raised the matter in the Dáil chamber with Minister Carroll-MacNeill yesterday. Speaking today he said: “It is now eight years since the Minister’s predecessor, Simon Harris, said that no child would be left waiting for longer than four months for a scoliosis operation. On 18th September 2024 I asked him how many children had been taken off operation waiting lists without their parents knowing. He said he would find out. However, as yet, there is no answer to that question. Yesterday in the Dáil I asked Minister Carroll MacNeill how many children were taken off the waiting lists without parents knowing, in a similar manner as to what happened with Harvey Sherratt. She replied that she didn’t know, and that she’ll have to wait until the end of November before she will have those figures upon the completion of an audit”.
Deputy Tóibín continued: “The Minister said that the numbers waiting on surgery were down and hailed this as ‘progress’, but in the same sentence admitted she doesn’t know how many have simply been wiped from the waiting list, without having received surgery. The Minister must admit it is quite shocking that it will take 14 months for a question asked in September 2024, about how many children have been taken off waiting lists without their parents knowing, to be answered. It points again to the dysfunction. I also raised in the Dáil the fact that some €11.6 million was provided to outsource operations abroad for children who need it but that as of now, there is no child scheduled for operations abroad. This shows that while money is being provided, it is meaningless if it is not making a practical difference to the lives of these children”.
In response to that query the Minister acknowledged it was a problem but wanted to again wait to see the results of the ‘audit’ to learn what the issue was. She said she had spoken to parents who told her that the international option was not provided to them or was provided to them too late in the process.
Deputy Tóibín concluded; “I welcome the fact that the audit is to be published next month. I have serious questions about how these waiting lists are being managed. From speaking to parents, I’m hearing of cases where the surgery didn’t go ahead because of a lack of post-surgical recovery beds. In another instance the child was removed from the waiting list because he grew to an age where he was no longer considered a child and fell off the waiting list without surgery. In some of these cases the child is inoperable because they were left waiting so long. It is an absolute scandal”.
