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The Children’s Health Ireland chief will admit that the body failed children as she issues several grovelling apologies at today’s Oireachtas Health Committee.
In her opening statement, CEO Lucy Nugent will apologise eight times for a litany of scandals at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), including the unauthorised use of springs in spinal surgeries, complications with hip dysplasia surgeries, and the failure to publish a report on insourcing work by a consultant at a CHI hospital.
CHI’s former CEO, Eilish Hardiman, will also attend the hearing to answer questions from angry TDs and Senators.
In her opening statement, Ms Nugent will say that the revelations have “led to great pain being inflicted upon some of those who were in our care”.
She will say: “I say to you, I say to the children and families impacted and to the Irish people, that I am sorry.
“I am sorry on behalf of the management of Children’s Health Ireland and I am sorry on behalf of the entire organisation.
“I am very aware that various issues that my organisation is grappling with have an enormously worrying impact on parents around the country, and whether they can place their trust in us.
“We want the best possible outcome for our children when they go into hospital and when they leave hospital.
“When that does not happen, children are failed and trust is broken.
“Our mission statement states that we in CHI ‘aim to promote and provide child-centred, research-led, learning informed healthcare to the highest standards of safety and excellence’.
“On occasions, we have failed to do that.”
Ms Nugent will also apologise for the use of unauthorised springs in children’s spinal surgeries.
She will say that “what happened should not have happened and children should have been protected from harm.”
On waiting lists, she will explain that between January and May 2025, 254 procedures have been added to the spinal surgery wait list, compared to 193 for the same period in 2024. Briefing documents provided to the committee, and seen by the Irish Mirror, confirmed that 223 spinal procedures have been completed in the first five months of the year.
An additional Consultant Orthopaedic Spinal Surgeon is due to commence at the start of August 2025 and recruitment has commenced for a further three Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon posts.
As of June 4, 48 patients were waiting over four months for spinal surgeries. Some two children are also due to travel to New York and London for surgeries in the coming weeks.
Ms Nugent will also address the recent report which found that hip dysplasia surgeries carried out in Cappagh and Temple Street found that lower decision-making thresholds were used to decide whether surgeries should be conducted.
As an audit of further surgeries is carried out, Ms Nugent will say that “does not underestimate the stress and anxiety that families are rightfully feeling”.
She will also apologise to the Health Committee over CHI’s failure to publish a 2021 report, which contains details of a consultant who breached HSE guidelines by referring patients he was seeing in his public practice to his weekend clinics rather than securing earlier treatment for them by referring them to HSE colleagues.
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