Paul Murphy: EY report shows children left waiting for surgery

Thanks, László Ciann Comhairle. Minister, the greed of Rotunda Hospital consultants on public-only contracts trying to get away with still treating private patients in public hospitals has been front-page news all week. The Minister for Health has said she believes in equality for every baby being born. Absolutely. The idea that some mothers and babies should get better care because of having more money is absolutely abhorrent. But Minister the question is, should that equality for babies stop at the moment that they leave the maternity hospital? There's an unpublished report by EY into CHI which shows that's exactly what is happening. It shows that children whose parents can't afford health insurance, that's about half of all children in this country, are being forced to wait much, much longer for essential surgery. Hospital consultants are prioritising private patients over those on public lists. It shows that children who need urology surgery are waiting up to a year longer if they don't have private health insurance. Kids who need time-sensitive spinal surgery are waiting more than six months longer because their little bodies are less profitable to operate on. I'll give you some examples from the report. Urology consultant 2 in this sample has 20 public child patients. Average waiting time to surgery in the public, 12.4 months. 10 private patients, average waiting time 1.84 months. One example, consultant 5 in orthopaedics, average waiting time in public, 8.7 months. Average waiting time in the private, 2 months. That's pretty much across the board in terms of a massive discrepancy of waiting time in the public versus waiting time for private. Everyone pretends that discrimination between private and public patients has no impact on safety or patient care, but the review shows that to be untrue. Let me quote from it. For spinal patients, only 41%, 9 out of 22, were treated within the clinical recommended time frames, meaning 59% faced delays, sometimes for several months. Delays happened for both urgent and less urgent cases with a median delay of 143 days. We all remember poor Harvey Morrison Sherratt suffering in agony on a waiting list. In urology, of the 73 patients reviewed, 41% were treated outside the clinical recommended time frames. The median delay was 152 days. There was one case where a child waited seven years for routine surgery. Seven years. The report points out that children may wait longer than clinically recommended for assessment, investigation or treatment with potential consequences for clinical outcomes, disease progression and quality of life. So much for cherishing all of the children of the nation equally. Do you agree, Minister, that this is utterly horrendous? That all children should get equal access to health care? Do you agree that this report needs to be published immediately? And do you agree that just as private health care has no place in the rotunda, it should have no place in Children's Health Ireland either? Thank you. Thank you, last count. I want to thank Deputy Murphy for his question. I'm a firm believer in this launch of care. It's one time when the Oireachtas did come together and chart health policy, how it evolves, irrespective of the change of governments that we have within the country. First of all, I would say you're quoting from a leaked report of which I have not seen or have no knowledge of. But I do know the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carole MacNeill, did commission a report and ordered the HSE to do so into Children's Health Ireland because of significant concerns that she had. I would acknowledge the exceptional work that Minister Carole MacNeill carried out over the last two weeks to protect the integrity of the state and ensuring patients get equality of care right across our economy. It should be pointed out the great work that has been carried out with the public-only consultant contract. Right now, as of the end of May 2026, 3,416 consultants have signed up to the public-only consultant contract. Out of 2,196 consultants, that represents almost 70% of all consultants working in Ireland. Obviously, as a result of that, we have to ensure that that work is public-only. I know the Minister is very committed to doing that in line with the terms as set out by Sláinte Care, which is very, very important. One of the critical things we can do by the public-only consultant contract is that we can manage very clinically, we can manage consultant availability with public demand. That's going to be very important as we see the challenges our health service faces over the years ahead. It should be pointed out also that there have been huge advantages taking place in a lot of hospitals right across the country because of these changes. We take, for example, in the Mater Hospital, 180 CT scans additional monthly and 84 MRI scans have taken place because of the public-only consultant contract. We see in other hospitals whereby many of the theatres are now operating on weekends, we get additional days out of consultants and critically, the key decision makers are in the room when patients have to be triaged and clinical decisions have to be made. That you have those senior consultants that are employed by the state on a public-only contract available to make those decisions in support of patients, which is critical. I would also say that Sláinte Care has had its challenges, but the government is very committed to deliver it. It has never been so committed under Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and she has demonstrated that with the increase in budget that the Health Service Executive has received over the last number of years, which now is at record levels, with the support we have in preventative medicine, which is very key, and also the support for our children. Absolutely no one wants to stand over any child in this state having to wait for urgent health care. That is not acceptable in any society. I say that as a father, understanding the needs and the genuine concerns that families have right across our society. Your commitment to public health care is somewhat undermined by the fact that private suites are being built in the new National Children's Hospital right now. More inequality literally being built into the system, even though private care in public hospitals is meant to be expiring. I'll ask again whether the Minister agrees that this report needs to be published. I think people have the right to see these figures, which show the reality of the horrific effect of having private for-profit health care happening within our health system. What it means is worse health outcomes, longer wait times on waiting lists, sometimes in agony, having poor outcomes at the end of it for kids whose parents don't have the money to have private health care. Do you think that's okay, Minister? Do you think it's okay that if you have private health care, you get to wait a lot less than if you have public health care? These are children. These are children who don't even make the choice about whether they have private health care or not. These are children. Do you agree, Minister, that all children need to be treated equally, regardless of their health insurance status? Do you agree it needs to be reported? Do you agree that it's time to wipe private health care out of CHI and the whole public hospital system? Thank you. First of all, I'll reiterate that I haven't seen the report. I don't know when it's completed. I don't know what version you have that's leaked. And I don't know has the Minister received it yet. So obviously the Minister for Health, who commissioned this report, who asked for an investigation into the practices at CHI and to ensure that there was equity of treatment of patients, she asked for this and you're quoting the results of it. I do not know how she's seen that report as yet and what actions she's going to take on foot of it, but I am confident that she will take action because she's demonstrated quite clearly over the last number of days that when she absolutely assures the protection of the public-only consultant contract, she has got results. And that's why I'm very clear in my view, very committed to slaughter care the government is, and critically, that all children are treated equally in our society. I think that's espoused from the proclamation. It's something that we have very strongly in our hearts as Irish people and we're doing everything we can to ensure there is equality of treatment for all our children. For more UN videos visit www.un.org