The Minister for Health must come into the D\u00e1il and answer questions as to why \u20ac19m in funding specifically allocated to reduce waiting times for children\u2019s spinal surgery was spent elsewhere, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis latest controversy is a further betrayal of children awaiting scoliosis surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2017, then Minister for Health Simon Harris gave a commitment that no child would wait more than four months for spinal surgery \u2013 a promise that was not delivered on at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive years later, in 2022, the current Health Minister allocated \u20ac19m to ensure that no child would wait longer than four months.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, we have now learned that this money was spent elsewhere by CHI and not used to eradicate waiting lists as intended.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Government is simply incapable of getting to grips with this issue, which continues to impact the health and quality of life of children in need of scoliosis surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cScoliosis is a condition where early intervention can result in better outcomes. The longer children have to wait for surgery, the more their spines curve.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren\u2019s Health Ireland must now explain where this money was spent and why it was not used as intended.<\/p>\n
\u201cScoliosis advocacy groups claim that they alerted the Minister of this failure to spend allocated money on several occasions over the last two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister must now come into the D\u00e1il and clarify exactly when he and his officials first became aware of concerns about how this \u20ac19m was being used and why action wasn\u2019t taken sooner.<\/p>\n
\u201cConfidence in CHI was already on the floor. If its reputation is to be restored, we need full transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
July 4, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Minister for Health must come into the D\u00e1il and answer questions as to why \u20ac19m in funding specifically allocated to reduce waiting times for children\u2019s spinal surgery was spent elsewhere, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall. \u201cThis latest controversy is a further betrayal of children awaiting scoliosis surgery. \u201cIn 2017, then Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n