Three board members of Children’s Health Ireland resign

Three board members of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) have resigned, Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said.

Ms Carroll MacNeill confirmed the resignations during an interview on RTE Radio.

It comes after several controversies involving CHI, including a report published on Friday that found many children underwent “unnecessary” hip surgeries in two Dublin hospitals.

The clinical audit of dysplasia of the hips surgeries in children found that a lower threshold for operations was used at CHI Temple Street hospital and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh (NOHC) than the threshold used at CHI Crumlin.

The review discovered that in the period 2021 to 2023 almost 80% of children operated on at the NOHC, and 60% of those at Temple Street, did not meet the threshold for surgery.

The 2,259 children who underwent hip surgeries in the three hospitals (NOHC, CHI Temple Street and CHI Crumlin) from as far back as 2010 will now be subject to clinical reviews.

Last month, then-chairman of the board of CHI Dr Jim Browne resigned following the publication of a critical report into the use of springs in child spinal surgery.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) found that the use of the springs, which were of a non-medical grade, was “wrong”.

The springs were used in three operations carried out by a surgeon at CHI’s Temple Street.

More recently, it was reported in the Sunday Times that a CHI consultant had been delaying treatment and referring public patients to his own private clinic while being paid thousands of euros through the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

Opposition TDs have called for a public inquiry and for CHI to be fully subsumed into the HSE.

The CHI hospital group is a distinct entity from the HSE, although it is funded by the HSE and accountable to it.

During Leaders’ Questions on Tuesday, the Taoiseach said a “drip feed of resignations is not the answer” to problems at CHI.

Micheal Martin said the immediate step to be taken is external and independent clinical follow up with affected families.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said CHI is “married in scandal and catastrophic governance failure”.

She said it is now abundantly clear that governance at CHI is a “fiasco”, adding that she believed the remaining members of the board should also resign.

“Clearly what is needed here now is root-and-branch reform and change, transparency and accountability.”

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said CHI is “presiding over an increasingly chaotic string of failures” with “devastating consequences for sick children and their families”.

Ms Bacik said: “We need to see accountability: Not just individual heads rolling and nothing else changing, we need to ask and answer serious questions about whether CHI has capacity as an entity to do its job.”

Mr Martin agreed for the need of accountability over the issues, adding that the matters speak to an environment that is “not optimal for safety of patients” and has an “absence of a proper team-based holistic ethos”.

In response to Social Democrats leader Cian O’Callaghan, Mr Martin also said fundamental questions had now been raised about whether the “entire programme of clinical directorship” is working.