Fine Gael has accused the Government of failing to learn lessons from the death 15 months ago of a two-year-old child whose surgery was cancelled at Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin. Marie O'Halloran reports.
Following revelations yesterday that elective heart surgery for two other children at the hospital was deferred earlier this week, Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny said it was "appalling, and God forbid that anything will happen to either of those two children or any other child in this circumstance".
But the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, who appealed to deputies "not to play politics with a very sad situation", insisted the surgery was cancelled because of a shortage of intensive care nurses at the children's hospital, and that it was not a question of resources.
She told the Dáil that the report of the inquiry into the death in early July last year of Limerick girl Róisín Ruddle had not yet been completed. "I understand it is imminent and it will be published," she stressed.
The two-year-old was due to have surgery to correct a congenital heart condition but the operation was postponed. The surgery was to be rescheduled and the child was sent home but died the following morning.
The two children whose operations were cancelled this week were to undergo elective surgery and the hospital insisted it would never cancel emergency surgery.
The Tánaiste stressed that there was a worldwide shortage of paediatric intensive care nurses.
When the Independent TD for Dublin North-Central claimed the Tánaiste had told the Dáil there were enough nurses in the country, Ms Harney said she had told the House that Ireland "has the highest proportion of nurses to the population in all the OECD countries. That is a fact."
"They are not working in Ireland," said Mr Finian McGrath.
Ms Harney said, however, that "Ireland, like many other countries, has a shortage of intensive care nurses for paediatrics. There is a global shortage.
"Representatives of the hospital have been overseas recruiting in the Middle East, Poland and in other places and they have to recruit nurses who can speak English."
She added that it took "6½ years to train as an ICU nurse for paediatrics, four years' training plus 2½ years to qualify in intensive care. Therefore, such nurses unfortunately cannot be found quickly."
"They are here but they have left the system," said Labour's health spokeswoman Ms Liz McManus.
When the Minister appealed for deputies not to play politics with such a serious issue, Mr Kenny said that the Opposition would not do so with children's lives.
He did not want the Minister or the Government to "reduce healthcare to the level of consumer provider. Children who need life-saving surgery are not consumers. They need healing and a Government that will do its duty." The Fine Gael leader said it was "not good enough to say the hospital authorities have been recruiting in Poland and the Middle East".
He was aware that "the existing staff of ICU nurses in Our Lady's Hospital are quite prepared to do the extra shifts to ensure no child will be sent home like the two children, on the basis of an alleged shortage of intensive care nurses.
"The fact is, however, that the hospital authorities will not pay the nurses because they do not have the resources to do so."
But the Tánaiste rejected this and insisted it was not an issue of resources. "Nurses are paid better in Ireland than they are almost anywhere else in the world."
A spokesman for the Tánaiste later said that the director of nursing at Our Lady's Hospital had confirmed at the meeting of hospital chief executives with the Tánaiste that resources were not the issue, but the worldwide shortage of intensive care paediatric nurses.