New targets for treating children with scoliosis would see waiting lists for surgeries cut to less than four months by July 2023, an Oireachtas committee will be told on Thursday.
The chief executive of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), Eilísh Hardiman, will tell the Oireachtas Committee on Health that proposals for HSE funding have now been developed in order to increase capacity at both Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals and to expand paediatric orthopaedic services at Cappagh.
Ms Hardiman will say that on this basis, CHI is committing to inpatient waiting lists for scoliosis surgeries below six months by the end of 2022, and waiting lists for scoliosis surgeries below four months by July 2023.
“These targets are subject to securing the required investment and no uncontrollable factors like a pandemic,” she will tell the committee. At present there are 203 patients on the waiting list for scoliosis-related procedures at CHI.
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Ms Hardiman will say the new investment will deliver sufficient additional orthopaedic activity to “substantially eliminate long waits for scoliosis treatments on a sustainable basis”.
This will involve increasing yearly targets for spinal procedures from 382 to 430 from July 2022, and then up to 438 in 2023.
Ms Hardiman will also “reiterate on behalf of CHI my apology to all patients and their families who have experienced increased waiting times and delays in accessing paediatric services”.
“This annual target of 382 spinal treatments was decimated in 2020 due to Covid-19, with 60 fewer spinal treatments undertaken, a total of 322 procedures. We did make progress in early 2021 to recover some of this activity but the cyber attack in May 2021 severely impacted services in CHI. We anticipate that this year we will undertake a total of 335 spinal treatments in CHI.”
The committee will also hear from Connor Green, a consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon. Mr Green will tell TDs and Senators that “the care of children with scoliosis in this country is inadequate. But the care of children with all other orthopaedic conditions is just as bad. This is alarming when I tell you scoliosis only represents about 20 per cent of our practice. Therefore, the real crisis is in everything else.”
He will say that children with spina bifida who are waiting for surgery “have gone from walking independently to wheelchairs”.
“From full-time school to home school and from wearing shoes to open sores from their deformities with no date for surgery.
“Resource us and support us and we will do more,” he will say in his opening statement.
*This article was amended on November 11th 2021
