Statement from Children’s Health Ireland, 29th September 2022

Statement from Children’s Health Ireland, 29th September 2022:

Children’s Health Ireland has a full spinal programme at Crumlin and Temple Street caring and treating many children with complex needs. Our primary duty of care is to these children, young people and their families.

Due to unplanned leave by a leading member of the Orthopaedic team in CHI at Temple Street, we are working with the clinical team to best manage the impact on services. The decision to cancel or change any procedure or surgery is not taken lightly, and is made in conjunction with the clinical team and management. We are sorry if this results in any postponement of planned surgeries. There are many factors which need to be taken into consideration in planning complex elective surgery, including bed capacity and key staff availability.

Children’s Health Ireland has a limited number of critical care beds at CHI at Temple Street – priority has to be given to children/young people with life threatening illnesses to use these beds. Each Winter, our resources, staff, beds and theatres are under more pressure due to the number of patients presenting to our ED’s. Due to additional investment, we have a plan to increase capacity, that means more beds, MRI facilities and additional theatre capacity in CHI between now and early 2023.

Good progress has been made in reducing the orthopaedic waiting times for spinal surgeries, despite challenges in staffing and infrastructure. Children’s Health Ireland cares for over 1,000 children a day. We are accountable for every single child’s care and treatment who uses our services. Children’s Health Ireland continue to communicate with our patients and families directly. We do not comment on individual cases in public.