Children’s clinic under huge pressure

A clinic treating children for orthopaedic conditions such as congenital hip dysplasia (dislocation) and club foot is seeing up to 70 patients a day, even though the ideal number is 24, according to the surgeon involved.

Colm Taylor, orthopaedic surgeon at South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH), said they were seeing “well in excess of what would be recommended for clinic numbers” in an effort to try and clear the backlog of paediatric patients.

The problem was not confined to Cork, Mr Taylor said, orthopaedic surgeons specialising in paediatric orthopaedics were thin on the ground nationally.