Hip surgery becoming necessary for many children 'due to late diagnosis' amid lack of screening

Regarding the recent CHI report, a consultant said: 'If you subtract the unnecessary operations from the overall number, you are left with a lot of necessary operations. In many cases it is likely that they were necessary because of late diagnosis.' Picture: iStock

Questions are being raised as to why “worrying” gaps in care for children with hip dysplasia — first identified in 2017 and again in a Hiqa report last year — have not been addressed.

Healthcare workers were raising alarms about diagnosis, including through a HSE steering group in 2017, even before the latest crisis around surgeries under Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) hospitals.