The Department of Health has offered families of children with severe paediatric spinal conditions such as scoliosis the option of treatment in big hospitals in the UK and in New York as part of a drive to dramatically lower the number of patients waiting for longer than four months for procedures.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will tell the Cabinet on Tuesday that the number of patients on the active waiting list for longer than four months by the end of 2024 will fall to 20, down from 86 at the start of the year.
Mr Donnelly will bring detailed projections to Cabinet on the actions being taken regarding numbers awaiting urgent treatment.
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Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin will seek Cabinet approval for a review that could create a “legal pathway forward”.
However, Mr Martin said on Monday it was unlikely that the Bill would be drafted before the general election.
On scoliosis surgery, Mr Donnelly is expected to say that reductions in surgical waiting times are being achieved despite an increase in additions to the surgical list due to significantly higher numbers of outpatient clinics being held.
He will also note new initiatives to ensure that the backlog is reduced and children receive faster access to care.
Patients are now being offered treatments abroad in Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York, Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and Portland Hospital UK.
A total of 20 patients are confirmed for treatment abroad, as of September 2024, some of whom have already had surgery.
Any child who travels abroad will be given a comprehensive support package which includes flights (with the child and one adult funded to travel in business class and another adult also covered to travel), accommodation, travel insurance and funding to cover expenses.
Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh is projected to carry out 557 procedures in 2024, an increase of 93 compared to 2023. Initiatives are also under way at the Mater hospital and Blackrock Clinic.
The Minister is expected to tell his Cabinet colleagues that some children are still waiting too long for care, but that any child on the active wait-list for longer than four months after Christmas (who is clinically suitable) will, in consultation with their treating clinician, be offered surgery overseas. He said CHI had confirmed to him that the additional surgeons and staff being hired would ensure enough surgical capacity to meet the needs of the service in future, once the current backlog is addressed.
The waiting times of children with severe spinal conditions waiting for life-changing operations have long been a matter of political controversy.
In 2017, Simon Harris, who was then minister for health, gave a commitment that no child would wait more than four months for spinal surgery. The target was not achieved.
In 2022 Mr Donnelly allocated €19 million in funding to ensure that no child would wait longer than four months. It later emerged that CHI did not earmark all the funds to reduce waiting lists with some of the money being spent elsewhere.
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