‘No child should be left waiting’

Harvey’s death shows urgent need for health system accountability, says Peadar Tóibín TD

I want to convey my deepest sympathies to the family of Harvey Morrison Sherratt. It’s a disaster for any parent to lose their child. Harvey’s death is particularly heartbreaking given the suffering that he endured in his short life and the lack of timely lifesaving treatment that he received. By all accounts Harvey was a wonderful young boy who should be with his parents today.

I want to pay tribute to Harvey’s parents, who in this most difficult time have shown incredible bravery and leadership. In the midst of shocking grief, when many people would feel like hiding from the world, they have committed themselves to fighting for justice for Harvey and for challenging the dysfunction within government to make sure that no other child is left waiting for in excruciating pain for life saving treatment.

Serious

It doesn’t get more serious than this. The loss of life of any citizen, most especially a child is a catastrophe.

As Health Minister, Simon Harris promised in 2017 that no child would be left waiting longer than four months for scoliosis surgery, a promise he failed to keep. At the time he said that we don’t need Ministers to defend the indefensible. He stated that the waiting list was indefensible. The four months wait commitment has never been met.

Harvey’s parents found out that he had in fact been removed from the waiting list by Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) without their knowledge”

Harvey had spent 33 months on the scoliosis waiting lists before he got his surgery. In August 2022 he got a promise for the much-needed surgery. In March 2023 he got a date for the surgery for April 2023. That was cancelled abruptly with no information as why it was cancelled. A year ago, Harvey’s parents found out that he had in fact been removed from the waiting list by Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) without their knowledge.

This is a shocking example of the real-life disaster of health service dysfunction. We often speak of the dysfunction in political talk or statistics or theory. But this is where dysfunctions translate directly into real life of a child.

Horrific

Harvey was left in horrific pain every day. Harvey was in and out of hospital with pneumonia because the scoliosis was crushing his lungs. The curvature of his spine reached a curvature of 130 degrees. A curvature of the spine beyond 100 degrees is life-threatening. Harvey’s surgery came too late.

One child has been waiting for between three to four years for a surgery, while two have been waiting for between two to three years”

I questioned Simon Harris who was the Taoiseach last September in the Dáil.  Harris promised to meet with Harvey’s family and other families of children with scoliosis, but he never found the time to meet with Harvey’s parents.

The dysfunction that has caused the scoliosis crisis persists. The waiting list for scoliosis operations has risen again this year. Figures from Children’s Health Ireland show there were 233 children on waiting lists for spinal surgeries at the end of last month. One child has been waiting for between three to four years for a surgery, while two have been waiting for between two to three years. 20 children are waiting for between six and nine months. All far longer than the four month limit promised by Simon Harris in 2017.

Crises

CHI are currently mired in multiple crises. In recent months, there has been a review into the use of unauthorised springs in children with scoliosis. There is an audit into the operations that were carried out into children who did not meet the threshold for hip surgery.

Think about that for a second. There are hundreds of children waiting desperately who need an operation for worsening scoliosis conditions. While at the same time hundreds of children who did not need possibly dangerous hip operations, who received them. Leaked internal reports show that there was a “toxic” work culture within CHI and there was the potential misuse of State funds in the organisation. There have been nine different reviews and audits commissioned into the dysfunction within CHI. Yet there is no clarity on how to implement the recommendations from those reviews.

Accountability is the catalyst that ensures that people do their job properly. Accountability means there must be a cost for failure, for wrongdoing and for dysfunction”

All of this before we take into consideration that Simon Harris signed the contract to proceed with the National Children’s Hospital which allowed for the project to ballon by billions of euro and end up years overdue.

The biggest crisis in the Irish political system is the lack of accountability. No is ever held responsible for wrongdoing.

Accountability is the catalyst that ensures that people do their job properly. Accountability means there must be a cost for failure, for wrongdoing and for dysfunction. If we crowbar it into our political system, it would be transformative. It would radically reform the delivery of housing, key infrastructure and our health services. Political accountability would save lives.

If the Irish political system remains an accountability free zone, we will be cursed to wake up morning after morning to hear of yet more tragic and catastrophic failures by this government. Simon Harris must ensure there is accountability. He should do the honourable thing and resign.

Peadar Tóibín TD is the leader of Aontú