FINE GAEL health spokesman Dr James Reilly has published a private member’s motion, to be debated in the Dáil next week, calling on the Government to abandon cutbacks at Our Lady’s children’s hospital in Dublin.
“The cutbacks at Crumlin are among the most cruel and the most senseless I have seen. They take no account of the increased performance of the hospital,” Dr Reilly said in a statement.
“Most of all, in keeping with the Government’s penny wise, pound foolish mantra, children will be denied vital surgery for a saving of €9 million, so that their worsened conditions cost more to treat in the future, expensive equipment lies idle and the training of frustrated, expert staff goes to waste.
“The Health Service Executive (HSE) spent almost twice this amount hiring outside consultancies last year, despite having a highly-paid backroom of its own.”
Co Kilkenny girl Jamie Murphy (11), whose family claims she has been denied life-saving surgery at Crumlin for her severe scoliosis, is to undergo a spinal operation in London next month.
Her family took her to London on Thursday for a consultation with a private consultant after claiming that budget cutbacks had caused the procedure to be cancelled at Our Lady’s hospital.
Arriving home in Graiguenamanagh yesterday, Emer Murphy said the English consultant had confirmed the urgency of the surgery for her daughter which he hopes to perform at a hospital in London on July 4th. He was very hopeful that the operation would be a success, she added.
Both Ms Murphy and her husband Peter are unemployed and face mounting bills – with the surgery alone expected to cost £50,000 (€59,000) – and other expenses such as post-operative care and convalescence, and travel and accommodation costs for accompanying family members. They are not being supported by the National Treatment Purchase Fund and are relying instead on community fundraising efforts. Although Crumlin hospital is understood to be reviewing Jamie’s case, the family say they cannot wait as they believe her life is in danger.
A total of 168 children and adolescents are awaiting surgery for scoliosis in Crumlin. John Moloney, Minister of State for Health and Children, told the Dáil earlier this week that “no child has been denied access to emergency life-saving surgery due to its [Crumlin’s] break-even programme”.
However, he added that the HSE is working closely with Our Lady’s children’s hospital to achieve an agreed programme of savings, totalling €6.5 million this year. Mr Moloney said the early retirement of an orthopaedic consultant in Cork had increased pressures on the scoliosis waiting list at Crumlin.
Mary White TD, deputy leader of the Green Party, who had raised the case of Jamie Murphy in the Dáil, said yesterday that “no budgetary restraints should impede vital surgery for children in pain”.
She said limitations on the Crumlin hospital’s ability to deliver services must be addressed urgently.