‘There’s nothing attainable or achievable’ – Advocacy groups for spinal surgery wait lists kids to boycott new taskforce | Y0ZH301 | 2024-05-04 00:08:01
'There's nothing attainable or achievable' – Advocacy groups for spinal surgery wait lists kids to boycott new taskforce | Y0ZH301 | 2024-05-04 00:08:01
THREE advocacy groups run by parents for children on spinal surgery waiting lists are boycotting a new taskforce set up by the Government claiming it lacks independence and does not go far enough.
Last month, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced that he would establish a new taskforce aimed at improving spinal surgery services for children and cutting down wait lists.
Senior Counsel Mark Connaughton was appointed independent chair of the taskforce which also includes the HSE's Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry, the new clinical lead for paediatric spinal surgery Dr David Moore, officials from the Department of Health and officials from the National Patient Safety Office.
Advocacy groups were invited to take part in the taskforce and the Irish Sun understands that a rep from the Scoliosis Awareness & Support Group will sit on the taskforce along with reps from Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland and Cerebral Palsy Ireland.
The taskforce met for the first time today to begin their work to try and improve the service.
However, three advocacy groups who represent many kids who are currently stuck on the surgery waiting lists have decided to boycott the taskforce.
The Scoliosis Advocacy Network, the Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy group and OrthoKids Ireland are all refusing to take part in the taskforce.
Amanda Coughlan from the SB&HPA group told the Irish Sun that the groups had decided not to participate as they claim the taskforce lacks the requisite independence and includes officials from CHI who have presided over the failures in children's care.
She said: "We had no input into the terms of reference for this taskforce and there's no measurable actions in those terms of reference. There is nothing that is attainable or achievable.
"There is no expert outside of CHI's staff sitting on this group to take an independent look at the proposals that CHI are going to put forward.
"As far as we're concerned, the people who have been presiding over the failures of care for our children shouldn't be the ones sitting on the taskforce making the decisions – they should be the ones taking direction from the taskforce which should be external people who are independent."
The group also claim that any recommendations brought forward by the taskforce will not be binding with Children's Health Ireland already unable to comply with its own commitments on wait list times.
Asked if they could not have more impact from inside the taskforce as opposed to being outside the room, Amanda said: "We have done this already. This is effectively a co-design and we've say on co-designs already.
"The Scoliosis Advocacy Network have been on co-designs since 2016, we've been on co-designs since 2019.
"While we were dealing with middle management trying to bring about effective change for the care of these children in our co-designs, this is now upper management who middle management reported to so we've already done this with CHI."
</div> Diane Hodnett from OrthoKids Ireland – a group which focuses on children's waiting lists for orthopaedic surgeries – said they are not taking part as the taskforce is not addressing kids who are waiting for operations such as limb reconstructions.
She told the Irish Sun: "We're not going to take part. The taskforce has no focus on non-spinal orthopaedic surgeries like limb reconstruction which are 80 per cent of the waiting lists.
"It is also being presided over by the same people who presided over all the problems that are in the system."
<!-- Start of Brightcove Player --> </div> <!-- End of Brightcove Player --></p><div class="hashtags">#theres #nothing #attainable #achievable #advocacy #groups #spinal #surgery #wait #lists #kids #boycott #new #taskforce #US #UK #NZ #PH #NY #LNDN #Manila #Politics </div></div> More >> https://ift.tt/fQ4egyx Source: MAG NEWS
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