Audit into hip surgeries carried out on children to be published 'fairly imminently', says Taoiseach

The Journal

14-05-2025

THE AUDIT INTO hip surgeries carried out on children will be published 'fairly imminently' according to Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
An independent review into hip surgeries in children who had developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) surgery was announced last year.
Hip dysplasia is the medical term for a hip socket that doesn't fully cover the ball portion of the upper thigh bone. This allows the hip joint to become partially or completely dislocated.
An anonymised sample of the hip surgeries, between 2021 and 2023, has been undertaken into operations that took place at CHI hospital sites, as well as the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Cappagh amid new claims that the Irish operation rate was five to 10 times higher than in other countries.
However, opposition parties have accused the government of 'stonewalling' parents and leaving them 'in the dark' over the audit and have called for clarity on when the audit will be published.
Martin told the Dáil that no one is stalling the release of the report, stating that the government is not 'hiding anything', stating that it would be published soon.
The Ditch
published a leaked draft of the report
in March into the procedures carried out at a number of hospitals, with auditors taking a sample of surgeries and assessing whether a threshold for surgery was indicated.
'It claims that hundreds of children on whom surgery was carried out did not meet the threshold for that surgery. They were subject to unnecessary surgery,'
TD Pearse Doherty told the Dáil at the time
.
Martin said that on the back of the leaked report, letters were sent out to parents. However, confusion as to arisen as to how many families received correspondence and why, with reports that some letters were sent to families whose children fall out of the audit period having had surgery 15 years ago.
Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald said the sending out of the letter to parents is a recommendation of the report, stating that it is not 'a general letter'.
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She told the Dáil it mentions the 'recall' of patients and letters have been sent to families where children had surgeries as far back as 2010.
Aontú's Peadar Toíbín asked for clarity to be given as to why families outside of the audit period have been contacted.
Tóibín said: 'Parents of children who underwent these surgeries are naturally in a panic this week following receipt of these letters from CHI, in some cases fifteen years after surgery, recalling their children for follow up appointments.'
He said parents are now wondering if their child are part of the audit or not, and are also wondering if their child required the surgery at all. He said families in receipt of this letter need answers on why or if their children are being recalled.
'Government wants the facts here, I want the facts here,' said the Taoiseach.
'I have no interest in hiding anything, why would I… we need to find out the full facts,' he added.
Last night, Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she would order CHI and Cappagh to
publish information around the number of letters it sent to families
.
The health minister said she thinks it is 'really important' that CHI and Cappagh confirm the number of letters they have sent, but added that the important thing is that the report 'will give us all a much better stead on the next steps that we must appropriately take'.
The Taoiseach said the number of letters is not the 'key' issue here. However, he confirmed that CHI and Cappagh have been told to publish the data around the number of letters that have been sent to families.
Social Democrats co-leader Cian O'Callaghan, who raised the issue with the Taoiseach, said the figure of how many letters were sent to families should be made public.
Martin said when that is released, people will begin to make assertions as to what the number of letters means, stating that content of the audit is the important issue.
The Taoiseach said he hoped the report would be released by the end of next week.
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