Children were left to suffer in silence

While I do not wish to diminish in any way the seriousness of what happened, one of the very big fears I have, as the political talk and controversy develops over the scoliosis and Spina Bifida surgeries, is that they will overshadow what is one of the greatest scandals in Irish health in this country.

That real scandal, the great scandal, is the number of children suffering from a debilitating medical condition - curvature of the spine – who have been waiting, some for years, for surgical interventions to ease their pain, to give them some quality of life and to remove the prospect of the condition getting more serious as they grow older.

It is mostly a progressive condition that can lead to deformity of the back, shoulders, and hips and can leave one leg longer than the other.

The curve is usually ‘S’ or ‘C’ shaped and it develops in adolescence. It can be very serious, affecting the heart and lungs.

It is also emotionally distressing for the young person affected and their families.

Spina Bifida is when a baby’s spine does not develop properly, resulting in many of these cases needing spinal surgery and other complicated medical interventions.

Children in Ireland, in the Republic founded over 100 years ago, have been subjected to unbelievable neglect, inhumane treatment, even torture, because of the uncaring attitude and indifference of many people in Irish governments, in medicine, and, let us face it, in a society that tolerates such barbarous treatment of children.

Over many years, and during the tenure of many ministers for health, including those of Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar, there have been many controversies over the waiting times for surgeries and about the numbers on waiting lists.

As is usual, many promises were made, few kept and, as a result, the country ended up with another major health scandal, and serious questions being asked over surgeries concerning 19 children.

There are very clear issues here.

There is a very serious problem relating to children who had surgeries performed on them at Temple Street Hospital in Dublin.

Serious questions have been asked by the commentators and politicians who jumped on the bandwagon. And, in fairness to the hospital and all involved, they have not responded with their side of the sad story.

The politicians have gone into overdrive to express how appalled they are and how determined they are to get to the bottom of it and to ensure it does not happen again.

They are concerned about the terms of reference of an investigation to be carried out into the affair.

Ten or more years ago there were waiting lists, long ones, for scoliosis surgeries, and very little was done about it.

Children were left to suffer, left to develop deformities, left to be embarrassed about their condition, left to worry about their pain and suffering, just left to “languish on waiting lists”, as Claire Cahill of Scoliosis Advocacy Network put it.

The independent investigation that is to be conducted into the surgeries at Temple Street Hospital will be interesting, but it will not solve the problem.

The essential problem is that Irish politicians, in government with responsibility and authority, are just not able to muster the management skills to organise a health service that can operate and provide services for the public without being engulfed in numerous controversies over inefficiencies and long waiting lists.

The sad tragedy for young people with spinal problems has been there for years. Politicians provided huge lip service when problems arose but did little else because of sheer incompetence or lack of will. The problems they are now going to solve are an offshoot of the long-lasting one that was never fixed.

‘Brought to you by the Government of Ireland’ should be changed, in this case, to read: Brought to you by many governments of Ireland.

Footnote

Budget 2024 is being announced this week.

I doubt it will measure up to the expectations raised by various government speakers over the past few months, but it will give the Government an opportunity to start some electioneering in advance of European and local elections next year.

And, of course, the opposition will rage that the provisions did not go far enough and will not help those in poverty, in farming, in rented accommodation or paying mortgages. Some things never change.