The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) – in correspondence marked “urgent and confidential” – has confirmed the “potentially significant” patient safety issues caused by the use of non-medical grade springs in surgery at Temple Street Children's Hospital.
In September 2023, I wrote the first story about the use of non-medical grade springs in surgical implants at Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin, as well as broader concerns about care received by spinal patients there. Some reflections.
Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) was facilitating cash-only private appointments for the surgeon at the centre of Temple Street’s ongoing unlicensed springs scandal as recently as late August.
Senior management at Children's Health Ireland at Temple Street knew that unlicensed springs had been used in spinal surgery in May this year.
During tense discussions this March, Temple Street management urging surgeons to resume spina bifida surgeries had to be reminded that surgeries were suspended because of alarmingly high rates of post-operative complications – including the death of a child.
