'The children of Ireland deserve better': Frustrated parents go abroad to secure scoliosis treatment

Dan and Paulina Nickstrom with their son Daithí in Finland. Despite being told that Daithi was being put on the 'urgent list', it was eight months before they first met a consultant in Crumlin.

In mid-July 2016, construction machinery for a new children’s hospital arrived, amid much fanfare, at a building site in Dublin. Parents of children with scoliosis hoped it was the beginning of the end of waiting lists.

Seven years later, as pressure builds in overcrowded hospitals, some frustrated parents have taken matters into their own hands by using connections to European public health systems to have their children treated.