Corrosive drip feed of CHI revelations has to stop
Corrosive drip feed of CHI revelations has to stop - The Labour Party
- CHI must not hide behind their internal review. Internal CHI report must be published.
- The rights of any one individual consultant are not absolute- there are critical patient safety, clinical management and appropriate use of public money questions that must be addressed.
- Minister for Health must outline how the patient safety safeguarding system in the HSE and in her own department appear to have been ignored by CHI.
- Review by NTPF of funding to CHI must not deflect from the NTPF’s own failings with regards to audit and quality assurance.
- Review of NTPF processes is now necessary as we cannot be certain loose practises with NTPF money is not happening elsewhere.
Labour health spokesperson Marie Sherlock TD has described the latest revelations into mismanagement within CHI and of the NTPF as “appaling”.
Speaking in Leinster House today, Deputy Sherlock called for the immediate publication of the internal CHI report in full, and for an audit into NTPF activity.
Deputy Sherlock said:
“The revelations regarding an individual consultant are beyond belief. It’s clear that there is something rotten at the heart of the Department of Health, the HSE and CHI that so many safeguards were apparently bypassed and patient safety effectively ignored.
“There is now a deep concern that CHI is just the focal point exposing malpractice across the health service when it comes to patient safety, care and the use of the NTPF.
“Extracts of the review into the CHI paint a damning picture of a broken culture which is leading to potential patient safety risks. This is an appalling situation for the thousands of families out there who are so reliant on CHI for care for their children. To think that the care of children could be conducted in such a haphazard manner is truly galling.
“There are four key actions that now need to happen.
“Firstly, the CHI internal report must be published in full so that the parents of children impacted by mismanagement can have full clarity on the situation.
“I am deeply concerned at the allegations levelled at an individual consultant as regards to patient safety. The rights of one individual simply cannot trump patient safety.
“While the consultant has since retired, they could be working elsewhere either within the private sector or internationally. There is an onus on CHI to be transparent and put the full facts out on the table.
“Secondly, it’s clear that fundamental patient safeguards were either ignored or by-passed. I’m asking the Minister to outline if the National Patient Safety Office has been made aware of any issues relating to care provided within CHI.
“Both the Minister and the CEO of the HSE say that there were kept in the dark about the reports into CHI. What oversight has the Patient Safety Unit had? How could such damning revelations only be coming to light now? What safeguards were ignored? And what safeguards are currently in place?
“Thirdly, we have heard little or nothing from the board of CHI despite the wider crisis that is quickly becoming a perma-crisis. There is too much at stake here. We need a comprehensive statement from the board to answer the many questions facing families.
“Lastly, it is clear that an audit of the NTPF must now take place. The NTPF is responsible for over 250,000 health interventions every year, with a budget of almost a quarter of a billion euros to spend on waiting list management.
“There are supposed to be protocols in place as to the operations of this list, but it appears that as it relates to CHI, none of this happened.
“If breaches of this scale are happening with CHI waiting lists, it is highly likely that abuse of the system is happening in other sections of the health sector. It’s gross and it demands a full scale audit to identify and root out these practices.
“It’s abundantly clear that patient safety has taken a backseat across the health service. I am deeply concerned that what is happening at CHI represents but a microcosm of the scale of abuses across the health sector. With more questions than answers, we need to hear in detail from the board of CHI, the Minister and the CEO of the HSE.”