Children waiting up to 2 years for surgery

NEEDLESS administrative red tape and chronic surgical appointment delays are forcing seriously ill children to wait almost two years for vital medical help at Ireland’s three children’s hospitals.

A leaked HSE report compiled by outside consultancy firm Meridian Productivity has alleged the management failures are risking the health and safety of thousands of children.

The report, which is believed to have cost in the region of €180,000, was commissioned by the HSE to help highlight issues related to any new national children’s hospital development plans.

It was concluded late last year and found that more than 500 children with serious sight, spine and heart problems, among other issues, are waiting almost two years for surgical appointments at Temple Street, Tallaght and Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.

The report said this situation is the direct result of sub-standard management of surgical theatre access and the lack of designated child emergency theatres in the three facilities at the time of the research, meaning non-urgent surgeries were repeatedly delayed to fit in emergency treatment.

In particular, it said Temple Street operates 28% under surgical capacity, resulting in 66 children being put on waiting lists; Tallaght 17% under capacity, with 42 on waiting lists; and Crumlin 28% under capacity with 422 on waiting lists.

As a result, the 207-page document has recommended surgical theatre target numbers for the facilities and the appointment of a single official to oversee surgery at the three hospitals.

This latter recommendation would allow doctors to transfer patients to either of the other two hospitals’ surgical theatres if they have a particularly heavy workload, the report said.

However, while the document has been welcomed by Health Minister James Reilly, who said “there will be consequences” for people who refuse reform plans, its findings have been rejected by the hospitals and one of the country’s most outspoken consultants.

A joint statement from management at Crumlin, Tallaght and Temple Street said the report was out of date as the majority of its work took place in 2009.

A spokeswoman said delays were partially the result of the H1N1 swine flu crisis during the period.

Despite being highly critical of serious staff shortcomings at Temple Street last year which were putting sick children at risk of going blind, leading consultant ophthalmologist Prof Michael O’Keefe agreed.

“I think some of these recommendations are a mad idea,” he told the Irish Examiner.

“You can’t, for example, ask a surgeon to move their patient to another surgeon; there’s no continuity. I wouldn’t allow that for my own children.

“These people who conducted the report seem to me to be looking at the figures as statistics, n ot people,” Prof O’Keefe said.

The unpublished report’s figures are supported by consistently lengthy waiting lists at Ireland’s three children’s hospitals detailed by the HSE’s monthly performance reports and National Treatment Purchase Fund figures.

Key findings

THE leaked report says Temple Street, Tallaght and Crumlin children’s hospitals are operating 28%, 17% and 28% under surgical theatre capacity.

- As a result, it says at the time of the report 66, 42 and 166 children were on surgical waiting lists for serious illnesses at the facilities.

- The report has called for a single official to oversee surgical appointments at the hospitals.

- The HSE claimed the report is out of date and that theatre activity has improved.

- While the hospitals have rejected the findings, the leaked report’s concern over waiting lists is supported by figures from both the HSE’s own performance monitoring report and the National Treatment Purchase Fund.