Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health David Cullinane TD has said that the Minister for Health should stop hiding behind Children’s Health Ireland’s (CHI) failures and acknowledge his own failure in leadership which allowed CHI to mismanage new resources for children with scoliosis and spina bifida. 

Teachta Cullinane was responding to comments by the Minister for Health on the failure of his scoliosis waiting list plan.

The TD for Waterford said that parents and patient advocates had raised concerns with Minister Donnelly on several occasions over the last two years, but that the Minister failed to take their warnings seriously. He added that the Minister failed to ensure that CHI was fully implementing the scoliosis waiting list plan.

Teachta Cullinane said:

“Stephen Donnelly must acknowledge his own failures in the CHI scoliosis scandal. The Minister’s lack of confidence in his own waiting list plan is an admission of incompetence. It is entirely unacceptable that CHI would take resources sanctioned explicitly for the care of children with scoliosis and spina bifida, and use it for other purposes. It is worse that the Minister sat on his hands and let it happen.

“The Minister can be as furious with CHI as he wants, but it is not credible to lay the blame entirely on CHI. I met again last night with patient advocates and parents of children with scoliosis and spina bifida, and they are very clear – parents knew that this was going to happen, and told the Minister, and he did not listen. When it was happening, as parents expected, they told him, and he did nothing. It took him 2 years to react to what was happening and commence an audit. He failed to ensure that CHI managed the resources as instructed. 

“The Taoiseach Simon Harris has committed several times to meeting the parents and advocates, but he still has not. Stephen Donnelly and Simon Harris have all the time in the world when it comes to meeting journalists to sit down and spin responsibility away from themselves, but apparently they have no time to engage with the parents of children in agony on waiting lists.

“There must now be serious accountability for this failure – not only should the Minister be held accountable, but there are very serious questions to be answered by the CHI Board and Executive Management Team, and the former CEO whose responsibility it was to implement this plan. The Minister must release the audit report to the health committee for examination, and similarly the Nayagam, HIQA, and Arthur Cox reviews must be submitted to the committee.”