Irish families pressured to go abroad for children’s scoliosis surgery

Irish families are being pressured to go abroad for children's surgeries for scoliosis, an advocacy group has said.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, co-founder of the Scoliosis Advocacy Network Michelle Long said that parents are "emotionally blackmailed" into travelling for procedures as the waiting list for surgeries in Ireland is so long. "If you don't go to Germany for example, there's no surgery date free in Ireland and it's emotional blackmail," she said. "Parents are really left with no choice if they're told that if they stay in Ireland, there is no date." She claimed that there are only three theatre days a week for scoliosis in Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin, with just five surgeons available. This must be increased to five days a week if the HSE to work on clearing waiting lists for the surgeries, added Ms Long. In response, the Children's Hospital Group (CHG) has said that Our Lady's and the HSE are still committed to making sure that no child waits more than four months for a spinal surgery bye the end of 2017.

"An outsourcing initiative has been necessary in order to support this four month target," said the CHG in a statement. "Since February 2017, patients are being transferred for treatment to the Mater, Cappagh and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore in the UK as a first step in the outsourcing initiative. "Furthermore... outsourcing of scoliosis surgery as part of an HSE EU tender has been awarded and contracts have been signed with Portland Hospital HCA Healthcare, UK and St Franziskus-Hospital, Munster, Germany."

The hospital has recently opened a new theatre and taken on another orthopaedic surgeon to help meet its target by the end of the year, though it confirmed that the theatre is only open three days a week. Our Lady's is also liaising with advocacy groups to develop a new patient-centered approach to scoliosis care, the CHG added.