Taoiseach Simon Harris has said that the decision to take an eight-year-old boy off a waiting list for spinal surgery was a “clinical matter”, but added that proper communication with parents was “essential”.
Mr Harris said he was happy to meet with the family of Harvey Sherratt, who has spina bifida and scoliosis.
The Dáil was told that the boy has been on a waiting list for surgery since 2022, when his spine had curved by 65 degrees.
His spine had now curved by 110 degrees, the Dail heard.
The family recently found out that Harvey was taken off the spinal surgery list without being informed.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald raised the case during Leaders’ Questions on Wednesday and said the number of children with scoliosis and spina bifida waiting for treatment was “disgraceful”.
She added: “The longer they wait, the worse their condition gets – a race against the clock, a race against the child becoming inoperable and the prospect of permanent paralysis.
“There are too many children in this awful situation.”
Harvey’s parents, Stephen and Gillian, were present in the Dáil gallery for Leaders’ Questions.
Ms McDonald said that in 2017, Harvey’s parents were told that his ribs were crushing his lungs, and in the same year, Mr Harris as minister for health promised that no child with scoliosis would wait longer than four months for an operation.
“Between October and Christmas of last year, Harvey was rushed to hospital five times, twice by ambulance and on one occasion, on Christmas Day,” Ms McDonald said.
“This child desperately needs his operation, and yet his parents recently found out that he was silently removed from the waiting list.”
Mr Harris said that he is aware of Harvey’s case and has been in contact with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and HSE chief Bernard Gloster, but said he cannot order an operation when the decision to do so is “a clinical matter”.
“I very much regret the children can experience long waiting times for treatment,” he said.
“I’m conscious that the burden this places on them and their families, and I’m very conscious as a parent, how any of us would do anything and go to the ends of the earth if our child needed any sort of treatment or care.”
When asked by Ms McDonald to tell Harvey’s parents that their child will get the operation that he needs, Mr Harris said Ms McDonald was “better than that”.
“You are asking me, as a politician, to give a commitment to a child to have an operation, regardless of whether the clinician believes that operation to be the best care.
“That’s what you’re asking me to do.
“Unless, over the summer, you became a surgeon, you’re asking me to recommend clinical care pathways for an extraordinarily sick child.
“I want that child, Harvey, to get the best clinical care possible.
“I want Harvey to get all of the treatment possible.
“And I believe the best way to progress these matters is through clinical consultation.”
“We’re very happy for my team to talk to the family, very happy to help in every way we can.
“But ultimately, a clinical decision will have to be made here.
“And for you to suggest that there’s some clinical lever that I can pull, that I just couldn’t be bothered pulling, is insulting to parents of sick children.
“You’re better than that and sick children deserve better than that.”
During Taoiseach’s Questions held later in the afternoon, when the issue was raised by TDs Peadar Tóibín and Mick Barry, Mr Harris said that it was “essential” that a clinical appointment was held to discuss whether surgery was the best way to proceed.
He said: “I believe it is essential that a clinical appointment is arranged here because it is a clinical matter as to whether surgery is the best way to proceed or whether there is a more appropriate way of providing care.
“I do believe that a further clinical appointment is really the right way to proceed and I hope that that happens.”
The Taoiseach added: “Regardless of whether they are clinical decisions or not, proper communication at all times with parents is absolutely essential in relation to this.”
