Tánaiste blasts HSE, saying slow referrals 'put children at risk'

Micheál Martin also defends Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte who walked out of a meeting with HSE chiefs last week

Speaking in New York ahead of the UN sustainable development goals summit, Tánaiste Micheál Martin also criticised the HSE for failing to deliver on promised therapists in special schools. Picture: David Young/PA

Seriously ill children are being put at risk as some hospital consultants are "slow" to refer them to the most appropriate healthcare, the Tánaiste has said.

Michéal Martin said he has been forced to intervene in a number of cases to ensure sick children are transferred to Crumlin Hospital and other centres of excellence for treatment.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner in New York, Mr Martin also blasted the HSE for failing to deliver on promised therapists in special schools and defended Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte who stormed out of a meeting with senior HSE officials over the issue last week.

The Fianna Fáil leader, a former health minister, has highlighted the need to overhaul emergency departments, stating that people who have previously accessed healthcare, such as cancer patients, should not have to go through them.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin meeting (left to right) Irish youth delegates to the UN Alicia O’Sullivan and Mohammad Naeem; climate and sustainable development lead of Ireland's mission to the UN, John Gilroy, and Ireland's Ambassador to the UN, Fergal Mythen. Picture: Twitter/IrelandAmbUN

Regarding treatments for seriously ill children, Mr Martin said that referrals are “key” to the best possible outcomes by ensuring children are moved to centres of excellence from secondary hospitals.

“We shouldn’t be slow to refer children to the centres where it matters,” he said.

“I know where secondary hospitals are sometimes slow to refer children to Crumlin and that’s a mistake.”

Asked why this is the case, Mr Martin said: “It’s a clinical view. Maybe the ‘I can handle it’ approach, ‘I don’t need to’.

“I have come across cases as a TD where I have intervened to make sure that people did get transferred because I would have to ask myself, in certain conditions, what’s the child doing there? The child should be sent somewhere else.”

In comments that will be seen as directly aimed at regional consultants and doctors, Mr Martin said: “I think people feel ‘we can manage it here’ [locally].”

Speaking on World Patient Safety Day, Mr Martin said the organisation of EDs is still “challenging” because of the current model in the health service.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) revealed on Sunday that 5,210 patients, including 100 children, have been without a bed since the beginning of the month in Irish hospitals.

“Nurses and midwives are facing yet another winter where they are left in impossible and often dangerous care environments,” said INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha.

Referring to Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte, Micheál Martin said 'Ordinarily, I don’t like people walking out on meetings' but that he had 'huge sympathy' for a minister 'at the end of her tether' with senior HSE officials. File picture: Julien Behal Photography

“We know that overcrowding of this nature has significant impacts on the long-term health outcomes of any patient that spends more than six hours on a trolley.”

Mr Martin said the model of care has to be geared towards direct access to health specialties to remove people from EDs.

“If you’re a cancer patient and you are known to a hospital, and you have a relapse or something happens, you shouldn’t have to go through the emergency department,” Mr Martin said.

“Going into an emergency department where you might meet a doctor in training who is not a cancer specialist — that’s not optimal.”

Referring to cancer centres of excellence and stroke units, he said health outcomes have improved dramatically over the decades.

Minister 'at the end of her tether'

Meanwhile, regarding the complete breakdown in communication between the HSE and Ms Rabbitte over the failure to deliver therapists to special schools, Mr Martin said he has “huge sympathy” for his fellow minister, who is “at the end of her tether” with senior officials.

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“Ordinarily, I don’t like people walking out on meetings, but I think it was a sign that enough was enough on this one,” he said.

He said that, as taoiseach, he had arranged a number of meetings last year, during which the rollout of therapy supports was agreed with the HSE, Department of Education, Department of Health, and senior ministers.

“I’m really frustrated with HSE in respect of the inability to implement that,” he said.

“It’s something the Government is going to go back to now in terms of how we deal with this.”