{"id":292444,"date":"2026-02-11T13:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/292444\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T13:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:38:07","slug":"hse-to-clinically-review-62-children-who-had-orthopaedic-surgery-following-external-report-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/292444\/","title":{"rendered":"HSE to clinically review 62 children who had orthopaedic surgery, following external report \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Health Service Executive<\/a> (HSE) is to clinically review 62 children who underwent orthopaedic surgery as a \u201cprecautionary measure\u201d following the completion of an independent, external report into the service.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the HSE held a briefing in which it announced the completion of the first phase of the report by Prof Selvadurai Nayagam, a consultant in orthopaedics and trauma in Liverpool.<\/p>\n

The review was commissioned in 2023 after concerns about high rates of post-operative complications, infections in orthopaedic surgeries and the use of unapproved springs in surgeries. <\/p>\n

The first phase of the review looked into the work of orthopaedic surgeon Connor Green, who has been on extended leave since 2023. Green has been contacted for comment through his solicitor.<\/p>\n

Dr Colm Henry, chief clinical officer at the HSE, said there were three reasons why the HSE has decided to review 62 of the 91 patients who were examined as part of the review.<\/p>\n

The first reason was that it \u201cwasn\u2019t clear\u201d at the time of the review what the clinical outcome had been. The second reason was the intended outcome had been achieved but there might have been continued clinical issues. The final reason was that the intended outcome was not achieved or a different outcome had occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of follow-up clinical review is to ensure a child is progressing as expected,\u201d Henry said, adding that his intention is for these reviews to be completed by the end of March.<\/p>\n

Letters were sent to families on Tuesday evening, informing them they were being contacted as a \u201cprecaution\u201d. A contact number was also provided to them.<\/p>\n

Henry declined to outline the findings or conclusions of the first phase of the report, and said these will be shared upon completion of the second phase, which will focus on systems of governance, capacity and accessibility.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Spinal surgeries report: The story behind the springs used on childrenOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The chief clinical officer said there were \u201cprotracted legal issues\u201d in relation to the completion of the first phase of the report due to it focusing on one individual. However, he said the second phase could be completed by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

He said there is \u201csubstantially safer governance in place in the hospital than when the concerns were raised\u201d.<\/p>\n

The HSE has announced it has decided to carry out a wider look at the individual consultant\u2019s practice, reviewing patients whose surgeries were carried out between 2016 and 2023. This will include all spinal, limb reconstruction and surgical dislocation of the hip, but not surgeries in the area of trauma and general orthopaedics. Details of how this review will be implemented are under consideration, the HSE said.<\/p>\n

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill<\/a> said the HSE received the independent, external report in September 2025 and was prevented from sharing it because of High Court proceedings. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time they were in a position to share that with me was last week,\u201d she told the Oireachtas Health Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Carroll MacNeill said she would like the first phase of the report to be published but legal issues will have to be examined before that can happen.<\/p>\n

The report is one of a number into spinal care for children. Last year, the Health Information and Quality Authority<\/a> published a report into the implantation of springs into three children with scoliosis, describing it as \u201cwrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

A separate report into developmental dysplasia of the hip, found a high proportion of surgeries carried out in two hospitals did not meet the clinical threshold for surgical intervention.<\/p>\n

The Government has pledged to hold an inquiry into spinal care for children. Carroll MacNeill said they have identified a mediator and agreed terms with this person to carry out this inquiry and a business case is with the department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health Service Executive (HSE) is to clinically review 62 children who underwent orthopaedic surgery as a \u201cprecautionary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,42642,1418,1421,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-292444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-health-information-and-quality-authority-hiqa","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-jennifer-carroll-macneill","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292444","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=292444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}