Patient advocacy groups have said that nothing less than a full public inquiry will restore confidence in services provided by Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), following a damning report on the use of unlicensed springs in surgeries carried out at Temple Street Children’s Hospital between 2020 and 2022.
Representatives from the Scoliosis Advocacy Network and the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy Group (SBHPAG) also want a review of CHI’s executive leadership team and an urgent meeting with Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report last week found that failures in controls at Temple Street hospital meant “children were not protected from the risk of harm”.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin on Tuesday, Úna Keightley, co-lead of SBHPAG, said the Hiqa report confirms what parents and advocates have “been saying for years – that Children’s Health Ireland suffers from deficits in governance, oversight and in accountability”.
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Ms Keightley said the report “has left more questions than answers”.
“We have no confidence in the current governance of CHI,” she said.
“This is not one scandal. This is a decade in catastrophic failings.”
Ms Keightley said that “in any other sector, a failure of this magnitude – marked by dereliction of duty to vulnerable children – would result in immediate dismissal”.
CHI board chairman Dr Jim Browne resigned following publication of the report.
Speaking in the Dáil last week, the Taoiseach ruled out a public inquiry and said the removal of the CHI board “would weaken governance even further and could lead to further difficulties and challenges”.
Claire Cahill, whose 15-year-old son Darragh has scoliosis and is waiting for surgery, said the “scale of failure” uncovered in the Hiqa report is “staggering”.
“From a parent’s perspective, this lack of transparency, regulation and oversight is deeply concerning. Our children are not statistics; they deserve better,” said Ms Cahill.
“This isn’t just a Temple Street issue. It’s not just orthopaedics. It’s a systems failure built on a culture of denial, minimisation and silence, a system more focused on protecting itself than protecting children.”
Amanda Coughlan, co-lead of SBHPAG, said she and her son “are living proof of the failures that have occurred within CHI” and the impact of long waiting lists.
Her son TJ has spina bifida and scoliosis. He spent four years on a waiting list for spinal surgery, but by the time he finally saw a surgeon, it was too late to operate.
“There is a consistent theme at play here. Vulnerable cohorts of children consistently failed because they are deemed less by an inadequate health service that has failed them,” said Ms Coughlan.
A full open process of improvement and a rebuilding of public confidence is needed at CHI in the aftermath of the spinal surgery scandal, the head of the Health Service Executive has said.
HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster on Tuesday met the CHI board and executive.
The HSE said on Tuesday that the aim of the meeting had been for Mr Gloster to hear the CHI board’s response to the report, to address governance and oversight arrangements and to receive satisfactory assurance as to how these have strengthened since the issues highlighted first came to light.
The HSE said Mr Gloster sought to hear from the CHI board the proposed approach to the timely implementation of the Hiqa recommendations and to establish a clear reporting to and engagement with the HSE on this process.
The Health Service Executive, in a statement, described the meeting between Mr Gloster and CHI as “constructive”.
It said it would “continue to engage with and support CHI to ensure all necessary improvements are made”.
Mr Gloster said, “what is essential now is a full open process of improvement, rebuilding public confidence and keeping adequate focus on the work ahead to open the new children’s hospital”.
Mr Gloster last week said what happened at Temple Street was unacceptable.
“Given the role of the HSE in funding CHI, I want to offer a sincere and unequivocal apology to the children and families affected by these issues,” he said.
CHI chief executive Lucy Nugent last week said the organisation is “committed to ensuring robust governance and compliance processes and to providing safe, high-quality, and child-centred healthcare services”.
