Something has gone badly wrong when the Department of Health has to resort to sending children abroad for spinal surgery. Dozens of children are expected to travel to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York in the coming months for spinal surgery for conditions including scoliosis.
The plan – which was brought to Cabinet by the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly last week – should help to neutralise this emotive issue as far as the election is concerned, though it would be unfair to characterise it as an election gimmick.
The measures are, however, an overdue attempt at bringing down the waiting list for children’s spinal surgery, including painful and dangerous conditions. The most recent figures – for September – show that there are 249 children on the waiting list, of which 145 are on the active list waiting for a surgery date, 90 of them for more than three months. The intention is that the number of children waiting more than four months will fall to 20 by the end of the year.
The cost of sending children abroad for spinal surgery has not been disclosed but is clearly going to be substantial. But any analysis must consider the human cost for the children and their families of delayed surgery. The focus must now be on ensuring that the plan delivers and that waiting lists do not return to unacceptably high levels.
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The long term solution, according to Donnelly, is a dedicated spinal service for children. But it is concerning that there is no adequate explanation about how the current situation arose in the first place. The Covid pandemic was clearly a factor and is often the starting point for any explanation, but it alone was not responsible. A number of coincidental factors are also cited that could be grouped under the heading of under-investment in facilities and staff.
However, the ¤19 million that was committed to children’s spinal surgery post-Covid did not have the impact that was expected and this points to other problems in this part of the health service that are worthy of scrutiny.