THE IRISH MEDICAL COUNCIL is conducting a three day assessment of the training programme for interns at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), after a report flagged “unsafe” conditions for students and junior staff.
A team of assessors visited Tallaght University Hospital and Temple Street today where they met with non-consultant hospital doctors, trainees and clinical staff, “excluding CHI directors and management,” according to an itinerary seen by The Journal.
The assessment comes as it was confirmed today that by 2027 CHI will be subsumed into the HSE entirely.
The Journal understands that most staff in CHI were only informed last night that four medical council personnel would be on site today, and for the rest of the week.
Staff were made aware that under no circumstances could consultants or members of CHI management be present for the medical council’s meetings with junior doctors and trainees.
Report on ‘toxic’ culture
An internal CHI report that became public this year flagged concerns over how a particular consultant was treating trainees.
The report said there was a pattern of “abrupt, unprofessional, intimidating and volatile behaviour towards trainees.”
It was decided that CHI would not have a new intake of trainees in 2022 until problems facing trainees were fixed.
Training at CHI sites has resumed since then, however no inspection process of training standards has happened on this scale at the three children’s hospitals since 2018.
The outcome of that inspection required an action and implementation plan being put in place at the time, but the internal report from January 2022 flagged serious concerns about training conditions in the hospitals after that implementation plan was completed.
The report also said that trainees reported a “negative” and “toxic” atmosphere which badly impacted them during their time interning at CHI hospitals.
They also reported that one consultant had created a “psychologically unsafe” environment.
Trainees felt that they would be “punished or humiliated” for speaking up with ideas or concerns.
CHI to become a part of the HSE
Today the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill confirmed that CHI is to be subsumed into the HSE, which will also be responsible for the oversight of the New Children’s Hospital.
“The National Children’s Hospital Ireland will be the central hub in the network of paediatric care with links to regional paediatric units, operated overwhelmingly by the HSE. Accordingly, I have decided to integrate CHI into the HSE structure,” she said this morning.
The decision comes after a string of crises and scandals in the organisation, ranging from long waiting times for children’s spinal surgery in this country leaving some children inoperable, children undergoing unnecessary hip operations, and unapproved springs being put into children during surgeries.
Reaction from advocates and opposition
Úna Keightley, the co-lead of the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy Group this afternoon told The Journal “it was clear to us that CHI was not fit for purpose from the very beginning.”
“Subsuming CHI into the HSE does not wipe away the reality of what families have witnessed,” she added.
Keightley said that a statutory inquiry into CHI’s failings is needed, and transparency is needed on why this decision has been made, as she described it as a “complete U-turn from the Government”.
Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Health, TD David Cullinane, today said that the Government has rearranged “the deck chairs of executives and board members” and that the decision will not improve outcomes.
“The minister has announced a plan to fold Children’s Health Ireland into the HSE. This will need to be teased out further.
“It is clear that significant changes are needed in Children’s Health Ireland, but whether that will be addressed by merging it with the HSE – which has many of its own challenges – is yet to be proven,” he said.
Cullinane echoed Keightley’s call for a public inquiry into CHI.
