Simon Harris made “empty promises” as Minister for Health to children with scoliosis, a campaign group has claimed. 

Scoliosis is a condition which means a child’s spine begins to curve sideways. 

Surgery can correct the condition - but only if treated in time. 

As Minister for Health in 2017, Simon Harris said waiting times for surgery were “appalling”. 

“We’re going to fix it,” he said at the time. 

“We’re going to make sure by the end of this year, no child waits in this country longer for a scoliosis procedure than four months.” 

Seven years on, Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy Group founder Amanda Coughlan said little has changed since then. 

“We had more empty promises from Stephen Donnelly and Simon Harris,” she said. 

“We have been consistently beating this drum since 2016; we wrote to Simon Harris when he was Minister for Health in 2016 to highlight not only the orthopaedic issues that were being faced by our children. 

“But also the urology issues that were being faced by our children.” 

A scoliosis specialist physician looking at a patient's x-ray. Picture by: Ivan Spasic / Alamy Stock Photo

One parent who knows only too well how serious the condition is is Tony Foley, whose son Ronan Foley waited three years for scoliosis surgery. 

Mr Foley described his son as an “inspirational young man” and now at the age of 18 he is “doing very well”. 

When Ronan was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 12, they were told he needed surgery within three months. 

“Time passed and time passed and it went on to a year and a half, nearly two years and we decided we can’t wait any longer,” he said. 

“We had to do something about it, so we started up a media campaign to try and get the thing rolling as much as we could.” 

Things got so bad that by the time Ronan had his operation, his spine was “nearly completely collapsing”. 

“We were told that if that had gone on any further, it would probably have gone to the point at where there would have been no benefit to doing the surgery,” Mr Foley said. 

Little change

Although his son is now doing well, Mr Foley is incredulous that waiting times for children with the condition still endure long waiting times for life changing operations. 

“Here we are seven years later from the situation is still as bad as it was then,” he said. 

“Successive Governments and successive Ministers for Health and the situation is still the same and it’s very disheartening. 

“It’s horrifying really.” 

Minister Harris has been contacted for comment.

You can listen back here:

Main image: Simon Harris. Picture by: Norma Burke/ © RollingNews.ie