Audit of unnecessary child hip operations expected by the end of next week

This audit is examining the cases of thousands of children who may have undergone surgeries for hip dysplasia unnecessarily at Children’s Health Ireland hospitals, or in Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

An audit of unnecessary hip operations on children is expected to be delivered by the end of next week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.

This audit is examining the cases of thousands of children who may have undergone surgeries for hip dysplasia unnecessarily at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) hospitals, or in Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital.

The Taoiseach was responding to the Social Democrats on the matter, with acting leader Cian O’Callaghan criticising the Government for not controlling the controversy.

Mr O’Callaghan said he has been contacted by parents of children impacted, saying they are “deeply distressed”.

“They watched their children suffer terribly through serious surgery and now they wonder was the surgery necessary at all. 

"Did their children go through all that pain and trauma for nothing? 

"The least they deserve is a date when these questions will be answered,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

Cian O'Callaghan said he has been contacted by parents of children impacted, saying they are 'deeply distressed'. Picture: Leah Farrell 

He said it is “ridiculous” that neither Mr Martin or the health minister have been able to tell the Dáil how many families were contacted about unnecessary hip surgeries.

“The Government is entirely ignorant about how many families are involved. That is really staggering,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

Has anyone in the Cabinet thought of picking up the phone and asking Children's Health Ireland and Cappagh Hospital how many letters have been sent or is the Government too busy trying to maintain plausible deniability about the crisis to ask these basic questions?

He added that it is “insulting” that an indicative date had previously not been provided.

Mr Martin rejected assertions the Government was attempting to hide anything, saying CHI has commissioned an independent audit to find if there was “untoward behaviour” or if something wrong happened.

“We are talking about children who have had operations. The least we owe to the parents and families is the facts and we need to be independent in how we procure those facts,” he said.

Mr Martin has repeatedly said the Government is yet to see the final review, but he said he hoped it would be completed and published by the end of next week.

He added that health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has instructed CHI to make public the number of children potentially impacted by unnecessary surgeries.

The Taoiseach said there was a “generic” letter sent out to parents of children who were impacted, with this potentially going back as far as 2010.

However, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that letters being sent out to parents are being done so as part of an interim recommendation from the audit.

Ms McDonald told Mr Martin that the letters were not generic follow ups and accused him of misleading the Dáil on the matter.

She added that she expected Mr Martin was aware of the number of letters set out to families but was “choosing not to share it”.

However, in response, Mr Martin denied the matter and said it was a “false assertion” from Ms McDonald.