Families demand immediate release of paediatric orthopaedic report

Kenneth Fox

Claire Cahill of the Scoliosis Advocacy Network has called on the Minister for Health to immediately publish the report into paediatric orthopaedic services, which was carried out by retired orthopaedic consultant Prof Salvaduri Nayagam.

The review was commissioned in 2023 after concerns about high rates of post-operative complications, infections in orthopaedic surgeries, and the use of unapproved springs in surgeries.

The first phase of the review, which examined the work of consultant Connor Green, has been completed, but has not yet been published.

It needed to be published immediately so it could quickly be established what went wrong, when it went wrong, and to whom, Ms Cahill told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.

“The Minister for Health needs to be on top of her brief.”

The statutory inquiry is at a standstill, she said. A mediator was supposed to be appointed, but work had not yet commenced on the terms of reference.

Oireachtas Health Committee chair Padraig Rice said there was no reason why the Minister could not publish the report. The excuse of legal constraints was not valid, he said, as the Minister could publish a redacted version.

Families of the children involved were deeply disappointed. “These delays cannot be accepted.”

The report needed to be published so that reform could commence and trust could be rebuilt. “This isn’t the way to deal with the situation.”

The “drip feeding” of information to parents was not acceptable, nor was the manner in which they learned of the report – through a report in a Sunday newspaper, instead of hearing directly from the Minister, he said.