The Minister for Health will publish an audit on unnecessary hip operations for children as soon as she has "digested it" after receiving it, Minister of State Robert Troy has told RTÉ's The Week In Politics.
His comments come in a week where opposition politicians said parents were being kept in the dark over the clinical audit of hip surgeries for chidren, saying there was confirmation that the children's "hip surgery scandal" at two Children's Health Ireland (CHI) hospitals goes back 15 years and not just the two-year period currently under review.
There have been calls for clarity on the number of unnecessary surgeries carreid out and for the audit to be published urgently.
A CHI-commissioned independent review into hip surgeries in children, announced in July last year, is looking at a random, anonymised sample of dysplasia of the hip surgeries, between 2021 and 2023, at Children's Health Ireland hospital sites, as well as Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital.
It has been examining whether the criteria used for surgical intervention varied between three hospitals and if surgery was required in all cases.
During the week, it was announced that more than 2,200 letters had been sent to parents of children who had dysplasia of the hip surgery offering routine follow-up appointments. Children's Health Ireland sent more than 1,700 letters to parents of children who had the surgery at Temple Street and Crumlin, with more than 500 letters also issued by National Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital.
An early recommendation from the audit, which has yet to be completed and published, was for letters to be sent to parents offering routine follow up appointments.
These appointments are being arranged over the coming months.
Labour TD Marie Sherlock has said there is a huge issue of trust with Children's Health Ireland (CHI) after "debacle after debacle".
Speaking on RTÉ's The Week In Politics, the Dublin Central TD said there are serious questions for CHI and its board must come before the Health Committee.
Parents must receive concrete assurances on getting clinical oversight and advice, she added.
Speaking on the same programme, Sinn Féin TD Claire Kerrane said parents should get access to an independent clinical assessment of their child's surgery.
Separately, on the joint opposition motion on assessments of need, Ms Kerrane said more funding to speed up and ensure children get their assessments of need plus recruitment and training of staff must be looked at.
Ms Sherlock said it was very powerful that there was a cross-party opposition motion on the issue.
She said staff recruitment was lagging way behind demand.
Minister Troy said the Opposition were "dead right" to bring forward the motion, although he did not know whether the Government would support it as that decision would be made at Cabinet on Tuesday.
Disability was very high on the Government agenda, he said.
He said that while the waiting list was too high, there had been an increase of 35% in the number of assessments taking place and €10 million had been assigned to fund private sector assessments.
Ms Sherlock said she was concerned that the Government did not have a grasp of the issue.
She said the whole system on how children were presenting should be rewired.
