Latest news with #ChildrensHealthIreland
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on the future of CHI: finding the right way forward
The Government is grappling with the question of what to do about Children's Health Ireland (CHI) after a string of controversies. There is no single ' right' answer to this dilemma, with the various possible routes forward all having pluses and minuses. But it is clear that doing nothing is not an option for the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, who has already appointed a number of new members to the CHI board. In moving forward, it will be important to keep a forensic focus on a few key issues which have emerged. This is a multi-faceted problem and there is no single, or easy, solution. And this was underlined by recent reports of a toxic culture in one CHI hospital, with multiple complaints about certain consultants. An obvious issue is that the CHI governance structure has not operated properly, failing to spot problems and also not providing adequate information to the HSE and the Government. One option to tackle this is to bring CHI fully under the aegis of the HSE which, of course, has had its own problems. Whatever exact structure is chosen, it is essential that CHI is operated in a way that reflects its reliance on taxpayer funds. A weakness of the voluntary hospital system, of which CHI is a part, is a lack of clarity about lines of accountability. This may even suit politicians and the HSE to some extent, as there is always someone else to blame. But it cannot continue. READ MORE Whatever new structure emerges must deal with this. And it needs to recognise that appointees to board such as the CHI need to be adequately remunerated for the responsibilities they take on. Public service has driven many who have taken on such posts. But proper professional structures are important. The controversies also raise questions about clinical governance in CHI, under new structures set up in 2008. This process is meant to ensure patient safety. Clearly, in the case of the use of unauthorised implants in spinal surgery and unnecessary hip operations, there were serious failures. A separate clinical issue has emerged about one consultant's use of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). It is essential that, whatever checks are needed , this must not result in undue further delays in appointments and operations for children. No doubt these separate incidents will also lead the Minister to reflect on the wider failure of the healthcare system to deliver an adequate return for increased spending, raising issues about productivity and also the overall system of clinical management. There have been improvements in the healthcare system , but also areas where services are well below where they should be . And the recent string of disturbing scandals further underlines the need for reform.
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
‘Fear and distrust': why children's healthcare is in crisis
Children operated on when there was no need; industrial springs being used instead of approved medical devices; a doctor diverting children to his own private clinic leading to them facing dangerous treatment delays; and a poisonous work culture on the wards – these are some of the issues that have emerged in our children's hospitals. And that's before the not so little matter of the massive budgetary and time overruns that plague the unfinished national children's hospital. The body tasked with overseeing the healthcare of the nation's children is Children's Health Ireland. It was founded in 2019 and in just six years has faced a mounting number of controversies and scandals. READ MORE Questions are now being asked about the ability of CHI to do its job. And that's a job that will get all the more complicated when the children's hospitals, each with their own culture and way of doing things, have to merge under one roof when the new hospital opens. CHI is funded by the HSE and answers to it, so what role does the State's healthcare body play in all this? And what is Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill going to do as CHI lurches from crisis to crisis? Irish Times health correspondent Shauna Bowers explains. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.
BreakingNews.ie
27-05-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
What's the story with Children's Health Ireland?
Three members of the board of Children's Health Ireland (CHI) resigned on Tuesday morning, after months of controversy at the operator of paediatric healthcare in the State. CHI was established in 2019 to govern and operate paediatric services in Ireland, and currently operates Temple Street, Crumlin and Tallaght hospitals. It will also operate the new National Children's Hospital upon completion. Advertisement In recent times, there have been a number of controversies in the hospital, including ongoing delays with the completion of the National Children's Hospital, the implantation of unapproved springs into children with scoliosis, the threshold for hip surgeries, and surgical outcomes for children in the orthopaedic service. The Children's Health Ireland group is a separate entity from the HSE, although it is funded by the HSE and accountable to it. Who resigned? A total of four board members of Children's Health Ireland have resigned over the past week, after months of controversy at the operator of paediatric healthcare in the State. Dr Gavin Lavery, Brigid McManus and Catherine Guy tendered resignation letters to the Health Minister on Tuesday morning, following on from the resignation of Mary Cryan last week. Advertisement Ms Cryan is a former HR director with the Brown Thomas Group, and former employer member of the Labour Court. Dr Lavery is a former ICU physician, president of the intensive care society of Ireland and clinical director of HSC Safety Forum (NI). Ms Guy is currently chief executive of NiftiBusiness and a former managing partner of ByrneWallace Law Firm in Dublin, while Ms McManus is a former secretary-general at the Department of Education and Skills. That means 40 per cent of the CHI board have resigned in the last seven days. Advertisement In April, the chairman of the CHI board Dr Jim Browne also resigned following the publication of a critical report into the use of springs in child spinal surgery. Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, confirmed the resignations during an interview on RTÉ Radio. She today updated Cabinet on the actions taken to improve the governance of CHI and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh (NOHC) following last week's clinic audit report on hip surgeries. Ms Carroll MacNeill said HSE chief Bernard Gloster has agreed to respond to the report and its implications within the next week. She will also update on the appointment of two HSE board members to the CHI board as well as a strengthening of the Service Level Agreement between the HSE and CHI. Advertisement Ms Carroll MacNeill said that she had "strong questions about the governance of CHI and its direction towards the future" and that there had been three resignations from the board this morning. "We need to have a functional governance structure to enable us to get to the opening of the Children's Hospital and to deal with the many issues in children's health," she told RTÉ Radio One. Ms Carroll MacNeill said she was not empowered by law to ask for the resignations. She said there were now seven people on the CHI board, including two she appointed over the weekend from the HSE board. 'There are seven people on it that were appointed in 2025 or in 2024. There are now three additional vacancies, and I will be looking to make similar appointments over the next number of days.' Advertisement Controversies This all comes after several controversies involving CHI, including a report published on Friday that found many children underwent 'unnecessary' hip surgeries in two Dublin hospitals. The clinical audit of dysplasia of the hips surgeries in children found that a lower threshold for operations was used at CHI Temple Street hospital and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh (NOHC) than the threshold used at CHI Crumlin. The review discovered that in the period 2021 to 2023 almost 80 per cent of children operated on at the NOHC, and 60 per cent of those at Temple Street, did not meet the threshold for surgery. The 2,259 children who underwent hip surgeries in the three hospitals (NOHC, CHI Temple Street and CHI Crumlin) from as far back as 2010 will now be subject to clinical reviews. Opposition TDs have called for a public inquiry and for CHI to be fully subsumed into the HSE. People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the hip dysplasia issue was a 'horrendous scandal' and there was a 'very fundamental problem of governance' in CHI. 'I think CHI is not fit for purpose as currently set up. I think that's kind of part of what a public inquiry needs to look at, but it needs to be quick.' In an interview on RTÉ Radio One's This Week programme, HSE boss Bernard Gloster said that t he potential for Children's Health Ireland (CHI) to be fully subsumed into the HSE will be one option considered amid concerns around clinical care and governance. Mr Gloster was asked if the issues highlighted by the report were down to bad decisions by doctors or a bad system. 'It can be a combination of any of those and rarely in a deficiency in a healthcare system will it come down to one single part of that,' he said. Asked if there would be accountability for individual surgeons, Mr Gloster highlighted that CHI and NOHC were the employers, not the HSE. But he said the question of accountability was 'fair and appropriate'. He said there were also questions about the governance of the institutions involved. The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) found in April that the use of springs in spinal child surgery, which were of a non-medical grade, was 'wrong'. The springs were used in three operations carried out by a surgeon at CHI's Temple Street. On Sunday, Mr Gloster was asked if the option of subsuming CHI into the HSE was being considered, he replied: 'The minister wants to consider all of the options. And, of course, when she sets out all of the options, that has to be one that gets considered, but it is not the only one.' Mr Gloster added: 'The job of the executive, the job of CHI, the job of the doctors and everybody else today is leave the minister to do her job. She will do that very well and give us policy direction. 'We need to get on with looking after these children and with supporting their families.'
BreakingNews.ie
15-05-2025
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
Boy (8) who sued Children's Health Ireland settles with €2m interim payment
A baby boy who, it was claimed, suffered a brain injury after he went into severe septic shock as he recovered weeks after surgery at a Dublin hospital has settled a High Court action with an interim €2 million lump sum payment. Evan McCurry will also get €250,000 a year for the next four years as part of the settlement against Children's Health Ireland. Advertisement His counsel, Oonah McCrann SC, instructed by Cantillons Solicitors, told the court Evan, who was born with complex congenital heart disease, had to have a number of surgeries after his birth. He had a surgical procedure at Children's Health Ireland, Crumlin, Dublin, on September 5th, 2017, related to his condition. He was scheduled for discharge a few weeks later, but Counsel said it was their case that he developed a wound infection and septic shock, which she said had 'catastrophic consequences" for him and his family. The case settled on day four of the hearing, and the settlement is without an admission of liability. Advertisement Children's Health Ireland (CHI) said it did not overlook any obvious signs of evolving infection, but that the little boy had suffered a rapid onset of systemic infection in or around the early hours of September 26th, 2017, for which he was treated appropriately. It contended the boy's brain injury was not caused by any alleged breach of duty but by severe septic shock caused by a highly virulent infection. Counsel told the court that Evan, who is now 8 years old, is cognitively impaired, but is a happy little boy. A full defence, she said, was entered in the case and it was claimed by Children's Health Ireland that sepsis developed very quickly over a number of hours and could not have been picked up at an earlier stage. Advertisement Evan McCurry of Stoneybatter, Dublin, had, through his mother, Helen McCurry, sued Children's Health Ireland. In the proceedings, it was claimed that between September 20th to September 26th, 2017, the boy allegedly displayed the history and symptoms of an infection at the site of his operation wound. It was claimed that there was an alleged failure to investigate, diagnose or treat it in time or at all, with the result that he went on to suffer septic shock or a watershed stroke. There was, it was claimed, an alleged failure to give any or any adequate attention to signs of wound infection, and there was an alleged failure to pay any proper attention to worsening signs of wound infection, including vomiting on September 23rd, 2017. Advertisement There was, it was claimed, a failure to have commenced antibiotic treatment, at the latest on September 23rd, 2017. It was also contended that there was an alleged failure to treat effectively the baby's wound infection before the development of septic shock and associated watershed stroke. All of the claims were denied. Approving the settlement and adjourning the case to 2030, Mr Justice Paul Coffey said he was satisfied the settlement was fair and reasonable, and he was delighted it had been resolved.
BreakingNews.ie
14-05-2025
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
Politics watch: Government criticised over child hip surgeries report
Here, we have a look at the topics likely to dominate political discourse in the week to come. Child hip surgeries Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said there are 'disturbing' implications if some of the claims made about unnecessary child hip surgeries are true. Advertisement An audit was conducted into a random anonymised sample of patients, aged one to seven years, who were operated on from 2021 to 2023. The audit was carried out after concerns were raised around different standards and surgical practices for developmental dysplasia at Crumlin, Temple Street and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh. The Taoiseach told the Dáil that the audit was at 'an advanced stage' and warned against worrying parents through a 'drip feed' of information. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald suggested in the Dáil that letters being sent to parents whose children were operated on 15 years ago was confirmation that the issue stretched back further. 'We've been raising it with you, conscious of all of those parents who are now asking themselves, was my child operated on (unnecessarily)? How could this have happened and what are the consequences now?' Advertisement She accused the Government and Children's Health Ireland of having 'stonewalled' parents. Taoiseach Micheál Martin accused Ms McDonald of being 'disingenuous' and said 'the obvious thing' was to wait for the audit report to be published. He said he was conscious of the 'anxiety and concern' from parents as surgery for a child is traumatic for that family. The Government is likely to face further criticism ahead of the publication of the report. Advertisement Oireachtas AI committee With many fearing their jobs are at risk from artificial intelligence (AI), a new Oireachtas committee aims to consider not only risks but also opportunities the new technology will bring to Irish society. When the Oireachtas committees were recently announced, one area of particular interest was the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Committee. Fianna Fáil TD Malcolm Byrne was confirmed as the chair of the Oireachtas AI Committee. In an interview with , Mr Byrne explained that the committee will 'explore how [AI] will impact different aspects of Irish life, from agriculture to healthcare to transport'. Advertisement 'We'll obviously be looking at safety measures to be put in place,' he said, 'but equally at the opportunities for both companies and social enterprises to use AI in delivering public services more efficiently and effectively.' While many people fear losing their jobs to AI, Mr Byrne believes it will create more opportunities than it eliminates. 'There are lots of opportunities ahead. Yes, there will be displacement in the labour market. Some jobs will no longer exist as a result of artificial intelligence. But, as with any new technology, many more jobs will be created. So it's important we look at how to prepare people — through reskilling and upskilling — to take advantage of the opportunities that AI will bring.' He added: 'Robots aren't going to take over every human function, but workers who use artificial intelligence will replace those who don't. And we've got to prepare for that. Advertisement 'With any new technology, there are natural fears — and some very legitimate concerns.' He said the protection of personal data and the development of ethical AI training models will be key areas for the committee. Abroad US president Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the US will lift long-standing sanctions on Syria, and secured a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the United States on a trip to the Gulf. The US agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion (€126 billion), according to the White House which called it "the largest defense cooperation agreement" Washington has ever done. Downing Street has hit out at 'fake news' after Russia fuelled claims that cocaine was on the table as Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz chatted on a train to Kyiv. The French president could be seen removing a tissue from the table as the three leaders chatted, but viral videos claimed it was a suspicious bag of white powder. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova shared the video, claiming 'they forgot to put away their paraphernalia' before journalists arrived in the carriage.
