{"id":136837,"date":"2025-11-13T03:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/136837\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T03:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:22:09","slug":"taoiseach-cant-comprehend-why-harvey-was-removed-from-surgery-waiting-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/136837\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach \u2018can\u2019t comprehend\u2019 why Harvey was removed from surgery waiting list"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Taoiseach has said he \u201ccan\u2019t comprehend\u201d why Harvey Morrison Sherratt was \u201cdeliberately\u201d removed from a waiting list for surgery, adding he, the T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Health would meet Harvey\u2019s parents on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Miche\u00e1l Martin responded to Mary Lou McDonald at Leader\u2019s Questions after she raised issues about the care received by the nine-year-old who died in July after waiting years for spinal surgery.<\/p>\n

Harvey\u2019s parents Stephen Morrison and Gillian Sherratt say in the time he waited for surgery the curve in his spine went from 75 degrees to 130 degrees.<\/p>\n

\"IrishTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said there are questions to answer. Photo: PA.<\/p>\n

And by the time he was operated on last December, the curve had reached the point where it could not be fully corrected.<\/p>\n

At the weekend, The Sunday Times reported a series of allegations made by a whistleblower in Children\u2019s Health Ireland (CHI) who alleged Harvey was taken off a surgery waiting list in the summer of 2024 because CHI believed he was a palliative patient.<\/p>\n

Ms McDonald claimed \u201cit was widely known that Harvey was deliberately moved from the waiting list despite being fit for surgery\u201d, adding: \u201cHis parents didn\u2019t know, though, nobody told them, they were left in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms McDonald also said Harvey\u2019s parents only found out why he was removed from the list from the newspaper report.<\/p>\n

\"MarySinn F\u00e9in party president Mary Lou McDonald questioned Miche\u00e1l Martin. Photo: Liam McBurney\/PA.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach replied: \u201cI want to make it clear that neither myself, the Tanaiste nor the Minister for Health had any awareness of this\u201d and that the allegations made by the whistleblower are currently being investigated.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI don\u2019t know why would someone be motivated to deliberately remove the child from a surgical waiting list without telling the parents, that to me, is something that I can\u2019t comprehend and that does need to be the subject matter of an inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September, the Taoiseach, T\u00e1niste Simon Harris and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill met the family and agreed an inquiry into the care of children with scoliosis and spina bifida in Ireland would take place.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Parents<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Parents of Harvey Sherratt ‘shocked’ at whistleblower claims about son\u2019s care by CHI<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Martin said Wednesday\u2019s meeting was to \u201dmake progress on the nature and format of an inquiry\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last month, Mr Harris won a motion of confidence on his record in Government which arose out of a series of scandals at CHI, including the handling of Harvey\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

His parents had called for Mr Harris\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Taoiseach has said he \u201ccan\u2019t comprehend\u201d why Harvey Morrison Sherratt was \u201cdeliberately\u201d removed from a waiting list…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-136837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}