5 days ago
Two new appointments to Children's Health Ireland board after five resignations
The Minister for Health has appointed Dr Yvonne Traynor and Anne Carrigy to the board of
Children's Health Ireland
(CHI).
The body, which operates paediatric healthcare in the State, has faced significant upheaval after
four board members resigned
over the past week. The board's chairman, Jim Browne, resigned last month.
The resignations followed two reviews that highlighted issues within the group's paediatric orthopaedic units. One focused on three children with scoliosis who were implanted with non-surgical springs, while the other found the vast majority of surgeries for developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) in two hospitals were unnecessary.
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CHI consultant who allegedly referred public patients to his own weekend clinic faced no disciplinary action
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Another report, by UK expert Selvadurai Nayagam, into paediatric orthopaedic surgery services is ongoing.
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Minister for Health
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill
announced she would appoint two members of the HSE's board to the CHI board in a bid to strengthen governance and oversight in the organisation.
The Minister said the appointments will 'further support the extensive transformation programme, led by CHI chief executive Lucy Nugent and her team, as we move to open the state-of-the-art
children's hospital
which will be Ireland's first digital public hospital'.
Dr Traynor, who has been a HSE board member since 2019, was vice-president of regulatory and scientific affairs with Kerry Group. Before that, she held global and regional leadership positions with German consumer goods company, Henkel.
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Ms Carrigy, who joined the
HSE
board in March 2021, previously worked as director of the HSE's serious incident management team. She later became the national lead of acute hospital services.
Further appointments to fill vacancies on the CHI board will be made in due course, the Department of Health said.
The Irish Times reported earlier this week that the Minister is considering
subsuming CHI into the HSE
following the recent controversies.
