Opposition parties call on Donnelly to return from NY amid spinal surgery review

Opposition parties have called on the Minister for Health to return from New York due to ongoing concerns over orthopaedic surgeries at a children’s hospital.

It comes after an external review into spinal surgery at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) Temple Street Hospital was ordered by the Health Service Executive (HSE) following a number of poor outcomes, including the death of a child.

Concerns had been raised about some complex spinal surgeries, including a high incidence of post-operative complications and infections.

The Children’s Health Ireland investigation was prompted after two serious post-operative surgical incidents in spinal surgery were reported in CHI at Temple Street in July and September.

CHI commissioned serious incident investigations into these two events which are currently in progress.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is taking part in an overseas trip to the United Nations.

Speaking to reporters outside Leinster House as the Dail returned from summer recess, Social Democrats TD Roisin Shortall said the matter was an “appalling national scandal involving children who are probably the most vulnerable group of children in the country”.

Ms Shortall called on Mr Donnelly to make a full and comprehensive statement on the matter in the Dail on Thursday.

She said: “We’ve literally heard nothing from the minister in relation to this appalling situation.”

She also called for the immediate publication of the CHI reviews into orthopaedic services at the hospital.

Labour party leader Ivana Bacik said it was “simply not good enough” for Mr Donnelly to be abroad during the controversy.

Ms Bacik said: “We want to ensure the parents are given full supports by Government, that full communications are made with parents.”

She later called for an urgent Dail debate on the matter.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy agreed that Mr Donnelly needed to appear before the Dail as soon as possible.

“What this is a story of is a really shameful failure yet again by the State of children with spina bifida,” he said.

“It is absolutely essential that the voices of the patients and the families are at the centre of this review.”

Mr Murphy said that he had raised the issue with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in mid-July.

During debate on the Dail’s order of business on Wednesday, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney said Mr Donnelly would be available for questioning in the house on Tuesday.

Mr Coveney also called on CHI to publish both the internal and external reports into the surgeries.

“Neither has been published. Instead, CHI published a combined report, which is CHI’s interpretation of the two existing reports. I don’t believe that that’s good enough, and nor does the Government.

“And the Government has insisted that CHI publish both reports in full and they will do so, I hope as soon as today and if not today, certainly, very shortly after, but I hope that will happen this evening.”

The reports were published after 5pm on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing the family of a 10-year-old girl who died following a number of operations at Temple Street said her parents wanted answers around the surgeries at the hospital.

The case file of Dollceanna Carter, from Co Meath, was one of 19 examined as part of external reviews into operations at the hospital.

Dollceanna had spina bifida and scoliosis and died in September last year.

RTE News reported her parents Michael and Bridget Carter as describing their daughter as a perfect girl.

Speaking on RTE’s News At One, solicitor Ciaran Tansey said families affected by the surgeries were “racked with pain, upset, worry”.