THE head of the health service, Bernard Gloster, said that he intends to bring forward the publication of a HSE internal audit of a €19million government fund allocated to Children’s Health Ireland to help ensure no child would wait longer than four months for surgery for life-threatening conditions such as scoliosis and spinal bifida.
Despite Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly allocating the €19m funding to CHI in 2022, the waiting list crisis continues.
The HSE audit was sanctioned by Mr Gloster after patient advocacy groups raised concerns with Minister Donnelly about how the money was spent.
Last July, Minister Donnelly told the Dáil that he understood “the majority of that funding, intended for spinal services, was allocated far more broadly across Children’s Health Ireland”.
The HSE audit team was tasked with investigating what the money was spent on specifically, and whether or not spinal services were given priority access to the funding.
Despite the audit being completed several months ago, it has yet to be made public.
Earlier this month, the HSE informed the Orthokids Ireland group, which advocates for children on the CHI spinal waiting list, that “the audit is due to be published in February 2025 as part of the HSE Quarterly Audit report schedule”.
However speaking to this reporter in Limerick on Monday, Mr Gloster said he planned on publishing the audit before Christmas.
“Because of the public interest in this issue, my plan is to take this to the HSE board at its next board meeting and discuss publishing it out of cycle, which means more than likely it will be published around the first or second week in December,” Mr Gloster said.
He said the HSE is “probably one of the most transparent organisations in the country for publishing internal audit reports, we publish them in full, absolutely unmitigated”.
He acknowledged that the “audit came at a time when there was also a complete re-wiring of the plan for dealing with scoliosis and spinal surgery because of the concern that was there”, adding that the establishment of a HSE spinal taskforce “is now a really high-functioning operational plan working its way through the (waiting list) cases”.
Mr Gloster argued that progress is being made on cutting waiting lists, “and when people hear there is a hundred (patients) on a waiting list, they are not the same hundred that were there last year”.
A total of 20 patients have confirmed they will have their surgery performed in either London or New York, the CHI said.
“We now have children going to America, their familys are fully supported, we have children scheduled and booked for surgery right to the end of the year in CHI,” Mr Gloster said.
However the HSE chief acknowledge that while there had been a “marked improvement from where we were this time last year”, there was “a way to go, there is no doubt” in tackling the waiting list crisis.
“The internal audit report will be published and we will allow it out there in its own space for its own commentary, and there is no fear (within the HSE) of doing that,” Mr Gloster said.
A spokesperson for Orthokids Ireland said they welcomed Mr Gloster’s comments.
“It would be a positive development in the right direction to improve childcare health services and restore our faith in the HSE’s governance over CHI,” they said.
According to the latest figures published by CHI for last month, there were 247 patients waiting spinal surgery, including 118 patients on an “active” list, 19 patients on a scheduled “pre-admittance” list, 45 patients waiting for a procedure date, and 65 patients whose surgery had been suspended due to clinical reasons, personal reasons, or because they were confirmed to have their surgery in another hospital setting under a CHI initiative.
