Michael McHale , 2025-06-20 07:35:00
Oireachtas Committee hears how issues around long-term infertility of young boys ‘did not meet the threshold for open disclosure’
The families at the centre of a number of reports which detailed poor practice and potential neglect at CHI were not notified of the resultant risks to their children’s health, it has emerged.
A 2021 report outlined how a number of young boys may have been left infertile after clinicians did not act fast enough to operate on children who were confirmed to have undescended testes.
CHI CEO Lucy Nugent
Despite alternative options being made available for quicker treatment, the report noted that patients with the condition were left waiting far longer than the recommended time frame for treatment, leaving them at risk of fertility issues or cancer in later life.
When asked by Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane if any of the patients involved were contacted and told about these concerns, CHI chief executive Lucy Nugent said that the cases ‘did not meet the threshold for open disclosure’.
The comments were made yesterday at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health.
Senator Tom Clonan described as ‘shocking’ an admission by CHI representatives that they did not know how many young boys may have been left infertile as a result of not intervening quickly enough in their care.
“I have all of my (Oireachtas) contributions here, at least a half a dozen contributions, where I warned about the lack of surgical interventions on the urological pathway, which is routine in other jurisdictions,” Senator Clonan said.
“That’s not a mistake. That is an ongoing systemic and systematic failure of our children – disabled children – being de facto sterilised for lack of intervention, on your watch.”
Earlier, Mr Cullinane referred to a 2021 report which referred to a number of children with spina bifida as ‘Crumlin Orphans’ and read an extract which outlined that ‘evidence from the gathered patient information shows that patients in both Temple Street and Crumlin have been neglected and have not received the level of care which would be expected in the modern day in a country with developed healthcare’.
Ms Nugent confirmed that 34 families were identified as being at the centre of this report, but said that they were not notified of concerns raised therein, which concluded that these children were receiving ‘sub-optimal care’.
“That is a failure that families were not notified,” said Mr Cullinane.
The Sinn Féin health spokesperson also referred to a risk assessment of a CHI oncology unit, completed in August 2021, which gave a risk score of 20 out of 25, deeming it high-risk. He quoted from the report, saying: ‘paediatric oncology patients have a poor experience or are harmed due to the inability of CHI to deliver international best practice standards’.
When asked if the parents of affected children were notified of these issues, Ms Nugent responded: “Not to the best of my knowledge.”
The disclosures were made in a heated meeting which included members of CHI’s clinical leadership as well as representatives from the HSE.
Referring to the recent audit of child hip dysplasia operations which found that, in 79 per cent of cases in Cappagh, and 60 per cent of cases in Temple Street, patients did not meet the agreed standard threshold for surgery to be warranted, Ms Nugent ruled out financial incentive as a motive for the abnormally high numbers of procedures which tool place.
Responding to questions from Committee chair Padraig Rice, she said that between 25 and 26 per cent of children whose cases were included in the audit were private patients, which she said was ‘within the contractual norms of under 30 per cent’.
The CEO also revealed that revised figures mean that CHI believe that 576 full-time staff will be required when the paediatric services at Tallaght, Crumlin and Temple Street are transferred to the new National Children’s Hospital.
Labour health spokesperson Marie Sherlock noted that is significant more than the figure of 382.8 whole-time equivalent positions that CHI requested three years ago. Ms Nugent said the new number ‘hasn’t been agreed yet’ with the HSE or Department of Health.
In her opening statement, Ms Nugent apologised on behalf of CHI to children and families impacted by recent revelations in relation to governance and practices at the hospital group.
CHI clinical director Dr Ike Okafor said that, of the around 1,800 children who are having their osteotomy cases dating back to 2010 reviewed in light of the recent audit of hip surgeries, 72 have been seen so far. He said that CHI hopes to have the majority of cases reviewed within six months.
