HUNDREDS of Irish kids are languishing on waiting lists – with one Irish specialist branding the care of children with orthopaedic conditions as “chaotic”.
Consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon Connor Green said that many children’s futures are being “destroyed” physically and psychologically by inadequate access to care.
Mr Green, who carries out scoliosis surgery in Cappagh and Temple Street hospitals, made a passionate plea this week to overhaul the system at the Oireachtas Health Committee.
There are currently 43,844 children on the outpatient waiting list.
And he rejected claims by the HSE, which blamed excessive waiting lists on the pandemic and cyberattack.
NOTHING IN CONTROL
Mr Green said: “Nothing was in control before the pandemic.
“Nothing was in control before the cyberattack.”
Here Labour leader ALAN KELLY explains why it’s time to reform healthcare – and ensure no child has to face unacceptable waiting times for vital surgery.
Most read in The Irish Sun
THIS weekend, the Labour Party’s national conference is meeting to discuss the need for a new deal for care in this country.
People should be able to trust that if they need healthcare, the State will deliver it when they need it not spend months or years lingering on a waiting list.
No one should have to experience the anxiety of waiting for the care they need, and certainly no child.
On budget day, the biggest day in the annual political calendar, it was Adam Terry’s story (pictured), not the Budget, that stopped me and most of the country in our tracks.
NATIONAL DISGRACE
Adam was waiting over four years for complex surgery and while he waits, his pain grows. The curve on his spine was so bad that some of his internal bones were rubbing off one another.
Thankfully, after much campaigning by Adam’s family and many others, Adam received the surgery he so desperately needed. But what about the 203 other children waiting for scoliosis procedures get them?
The ongoing scoliosis crisis is nothing short of a national disgrace. It is simply unacceptable that any child in this country should have to wait in pain for over four years for potentially life-changing surgery. Indeed, the longer they wait, the more complex their health becomes.
The Health Committee heard stories this week of children with spina bifida who, due to the long waiting list for surgery, have gone from walking interpedently, to using wheelchairs. These delays cannot continue.
UNACCEPTABLE
When Minister for Health in 2017, Simon Harris made plenty of public promises on this issue, promising that children would not have to wait more than four months for scoliosis treatment.
At that time, Micheál Martin himself called on government to take serious action to address this. In 2018, an action plan was created to help solve this crisis.
Yet four years later, parents like Christine and children like Adam still have to take to the national airwaves to get government’s attention. How can we ask another 203 families to do the same?
It is simply unacceptable that any child in this country should have to wait in pain for over a year for potentially life-changing surgery.
CHILDREN LEFT IN PAIN
The money thrown around in this year’s budget could have been used to target the 203 children waiting for scoliosis procedures.
I’m sure the majority of the country would give up any modest tax change if Adam and the 203 other children waiting for scoliosis procedures could have them.
Indeed there are many children with complex neurological issues that need to get their procedures as soon as possible. In a time of prosperity, how could we continue to leave these children in pain?
Coming out of the pandemic, into a post-Covid Ireland there can be no going back to normal.
HEARTBREAKING
People want meaningful system change, not just money thrown around to pacify interest groups. In 2020 the State effectively nationalised the healthcare system overnight.
Labour is committed to expanding public capacity and tackle waiting lists by purchasing the equivalent of two private hospitals. The 900,000 people on waiting lists, of which over 100,000 are children, shouldn’t have to wait for care.
It is a national disgrace that 203 other children like Adam are today in such pain and anguish. Parents are sick and tired of being told time after time that the waiting list issue will be solved. It clearly isn’t.
It’s heartbreaking for families, it’s painful for children, it’s not the Ireland that we should aspire to.
