The State is “nowhere near where we would want to be” on reducing spinal surgery waiting lists for children, the Minister for Health has said in recent weeks.
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said, however, the “trajectory” is moving towards reducing this. There has been an increase in the “acuity” or severity of some of the cases, which resulted in multiple surgeries being required and influenced the waiting list.
The issues around surgeries for children with scoliosis and spina bifida are long-standing.
Long waiting lists have resulted in delays for children with a deteriorating condition, while there have been controversies around the use of unapproved devices during surgery.
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Steps were made to address these problems. An additional €19 million was provided to help Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) tackle scoliosis waiting lists. The Department of Health partnered with hospitals in London and New York to allow for patients to be treated abroad. Additional staff were hired.
Carroll MacNeill said 16 children have received their surgery abroad since 2024. According to the most recent figures from CHI, from February, there were 233 children on spinal surgery waiting lists.
Of the 132 who were on the active waiting list, 43 were waiting longer than six months.
Last year 513 paediatric spinal surgeries were completed. This is a 10 per cent increase on the 464 procedures in 2023 and a 35 per cent rise compared with 2019.
In January and February of this year 87 spinal surgeries were carried out while 110 new patients were added to the waiting list in the same period.
According to former minister for health Stephen Donnelly, approval has been granted for a number of additional consultants posts to support the spinal surgeries.
As of January 21st, the additional approved consultant posts comprise four consultant orthopaedic surgeons, a consultant paediatrician with a special interest in neurodisability, two consultant anaesthetists, a consultant plastic surgeon and a paediatric respiratory consultant.
A CHI spokeswoman said its spinal surgery management unit “continues to work to reduce waiting times and improve access to spinal services for patients through various initiatives”.
The spokeswoman said “we aim to have a new consultant spinal surgeon in post in the summer, who will further bolster our efforts to reduce the waiting list for spinal surgery and the length of time that patients are waiting”.
Recruitment is also under way for a clinical nurse specialist, an advanced nurse practitioner in tissue viability and an occupational therapy specialist.
According to a letter from Donnelly, CHI has said the “additional consultants being hired, coupled with additional investment already made, will ensure enough surgical capacity to meet the needs of the paediatric spinal service in future, once the current backlog is addressed”.
But capacity and staffing are just two issues around spinal surgeries. Another is the controversy around the use of medically unapproved spring devices in Temple Street. For many of the families implicated in this, questions remain.
Selvadurai Nayagam, a consultant in orthopaedics and trauma at Royal Liverpool children’s hospital, is conducting a review into these events.
The Health Service Executive said the review is entirely independent. It is progressing but the service is not aware of a completion date, it said.
Connor Green, the orthopaedic surgeon at the centre of the controversy, ceased carrying out spinal surgery in November 2023 and has been referred to the Medical Council by CHI.
The Health Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) is also conducting a review into the governance of the use of non-surgical implants in CHI. It is understood a report is nearing completion.
