Staff at CHI ‘persistently lied about implementing scoliosis report changes’
Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) staff persistently lied to cover up why they had not made changes ordered by two official investigations into substandard care given to youngsters, a whistleblower has claimed.
The former CHI employee also alleges the State’s watchdog for children, as well as the family of a teenage girl whose spine curved from 30 to 135 degrees while she waited for surgery, were among those who were deceived.
The allegations are made in a series of protected disclosures now being investigated by HSE chief Bernard Gloster and the Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon.
CEO of Health Service Executive (HSE) Bernard Gloster and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD. Pic: Sam Boal/Collins Photos
They come just weeks after the same whistleblower claimed CHI medics removed tragic Harvey Morrison Sherratt from an urgent spinal surgery list because they deemed him to be ‘palliative’ and ‘not fit for a sneeze’.
The latest disclosures also come as the Government prepared to draft the terms and references for its recently announced public statutory inquiry into care provided by CHI to children – including Harvey – with scoliosis, spina bifida and hydrocephalus.
The whistleblower’s latest protected disclosures – seen by Extra.ie – centre on the ‘Ivy’ report prepared by the Ombudsman for Children and the Boston Audit Review.
The Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon. PIC: MAXWELLS
Ivy was the pseudonym given to a teenage girl who was forced to wait five years for spine straightening surgery, whose case was brought to the attention of the Ombudsman for Children when her family became increasingly concerned about her health.
The Boston review examined the cases of 16 children aged between five and 11 who had spinal surgery between October 2019 and October 2022. Many of these youngsters developed infections and complications after surgery.
Twelve contracted wound infections, and 13 required multiple follow-up operations. One child had to return to the operating theatre 34 times.
The authors of both of these investigations called for changes so children would get better care at hospitals run by CHI. But the whistleblower now claims that, instead of ensuring these improvements were made, CHI lied as part of a cover-up to conceal how little they had done to improve things.
Harvey Morrison Sherratt with his mother Gillian. Pic: Tom Honan
The whistleblower does not provide specific details about which recommendations from both reports were not implemented. In their protective disclosure about the Ivy case, they allege documents were falsified to mislead the Ombudsman for Children and Ivy’s family.
The whistleblower further claims that, when the children’s watchdog sought proof that the recommendations made in the Ivy report had been carried out, it ‘was discovered that none of the recommendations had been implemented’.
When senior staff were allegedly questioned about why they had ‘marked’ recommendations as being implemented when they were still outstanding, the whistleblower claims two CHI employees ‘justified marking the recommendations as completed due to pressure to demonstrate compliance despite not actually implementing them’.
This allegedly resulted in the whistleblower being ordered to create ‘a false retrospective communications report’ to cover up the alleged non-compliance. However, the ex-CHI worker claims they refused to do so, and as a result they were ‘intimidated’.
In a separate protected disclosure, the same whistleblower claims that several of the Boston Audit Review’s recommendations were ‘marked’ as being ‘completed’. But according to the former CHI employee, ‘in several cases work had not commenced or recommendations had been only partially addressed’.
The whistleblower also claims that, when they asked to change the reports so that recommendations not already implemented were listed as ‘in progress’ instead of ‘completed’, they were ‘instructed not to amend the records’.
The whistleblower said they were told that, if the compliance records were amended, this would lead to ‘absolute murder with the HSE, the Department of Health, Government and Minister for Health [Jennifer Carroll MacNeill]’ and that ‘heads would have to roll’.
The Ombudsman for Children Office declined to comment on the protected disclosures allegations.
A spokesman for the Protective Disclosure Commissioner would only say: ‘The main role of the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner is to send reports of wrongdoing to the appropriate organisation for assessment and follow-up in accordance with the Protected Disclosures Act.
‘Maintaining confidentiality is a core requirement of the legislation. The Commissioner therefore cannot respond to any queries regarding specific reports that may have been made to his Office.’ CHI did not respond to a request for comment.
The HSE said: ‘In accordance with the Protected Disclosures Act, the HSE cannot comment on individual protected disclosures.’
