We are authorising it.
Sentiment score: 0.00
When Emilia was three years old she had osteotomies on both hips at Temple Street hospital. Her mother felt unduly and inappropriately pressured by the surgeon. It started out with the possibility that she might need one hip done and then it was an absolute necessity to get both done. Emilia was six before she could walk property. She was the slowest to do a cartwheel and the last to ride a bike. She still has pain when she climbs stairs. Her younger sister Hannah was then later in Temple Street with an unrelated eye condition. The same surgeon spotted her and insisted on checking her for hip dysplasia. The mother said that was not necessary as she had been checked at the Coombe hospital and everything was fine, but the doctor insisted. He logged into the CHI database, looked at the scan and said Hannah needed to get both hips done. The mother did not trust the doctor at this stage. She went back to the Coombe, where the doctor said that was a load of nonsense and that she did not need either hip done. No hip was done. It is a chilling example of what this scandal looks like to parents. What it looked like inside the hospitals is illustrated by an email sent by then clinical director of Cappagh in November 2023: Recently, it has become apparent that many children listed for pelvic osteotomies are being cancelled or are having their surgery deferred at short notice, thereby causing inefficiencies on surgical lists. Following a meeting today, I have decided that patients listed for pelvic osteotomies will no longer be discussed at the MDT [multidisciplinary team]. It will be up to the patient's individual consultant to review the X-ray and decide if they wish to proceed. Surgeries are being cancelled because other surgeons thought they were unnecessary. Instead of saying something was wrong, the clinical director said we will stop discussing them at the MDT and it will be fully in the hands of the original surgeon to decide what he or she would do. That is incredible. What was the motivation for this? If Hannah had been operated on, because they had private health insurance, the surgeon would have made €1,500 for the first hip and another €750 for the second. That is what they would have made for Emilia's two hips. This is an example of the poisonous role of private profit in what should be a public health system. I have three questions for the Taoiseach. First, why are the surgeons who conducted hundreds on unnecessary surgeries still operating on children? One of them could do an osteotomy tomorrow. Surely they need to be suspended, or, at the very least, stopped from performing osteotomies until the audit is verified. Second, the Government and CHI have publicly committed to independently reviewing all of these osteotomies, but the clinical director of CHI has emailed staff saying, "it is acknowledged that some patients and parents may request a retrospective review of their case to determine the indications for surgery". Does the Taoiseach agree that the onus should not be on parents to request that their cases be reviewed? Finally, does the Taoiseach agree that the review should not be limited to patients from 2010 onward, as is clearly indicated in CHI's statement? The operations started in 2002 and all of them need to be reviewed.
Sentiment score: -0.05
Correct.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Sometimes, when people are discussing this issue, they talk about culture in a disembodied sense, that a culture that was bad existed. Clearly, there was in this case. However, the culture was created by individuals and carried on by individuals. The top surgeons in question were a really big part of this. The question has to be asked in terms of what the motivation was. Was the motivation financial? I heard the figures, on top of salaries - that consultants receive €1,500 for the first hip and another €750 for the second. These are relatively easy operations for the surgeons to do. The Taoiseach can see how that may have a significant distorting effect on what is happening in our hospitals and proves the basic point that we need to have a proper public health system. I make the point that the email which suspended the MDTs, which was incredible, was cc'd to the senior management at Cappagh. It should have raised a red flag. Clearly, it did not because it then proceeded to happen and the MDTs were suspended.
Sentiment score: 0.08
Does the Taoiseach agree that these surgeons should, at the very least, not now be conducting osteotomies? That can be done immediately and needs to be done immediately. The CHI statement is clear-----
Sentiment score: 0.12
----- about reviewing operations from 2010 onward being reviewed.
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It needs to go back to 2002.
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That is when these operations started.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I do not want "not ruling out"; I want a commitment.
Sentiment score: 0.29