Spinal Surgery Updates

📋 CHI Spinal Surgery Waiting List & Activity Report – May 2025

• Full report
• 111 patients actively waiting. These patients are ready for surgery and waiting for a scheduled date for admission in the future.
• 226 total patients on the waiting list (111 active + 14 pre-admit + 31 planned + 70 suspended = 226).
• 210 spinal surgeries carried out to date.

➕ Waiting list additions

Between January and May 2025, 254 procedures have been added to the spinal surgery wait list. This is compared to 193 procedures added for the same period in 2024. While we are doing more spinal surgeries this year (210 so far), we are also seeing more outpatients and adding more procedures to the waiting lists.

Please be assured that the list is constantly changing — as children and young people have their surgeries and come off the list, new patients are added. Important progress is being made every month.

👩‍⚕️ Recruitment

An additional Consultant Orthopaedic Spinal Surgeon is due to commence at the start of August 2025, following a successful recruitment campaign.

🎬 Patient Education Videos

Following a tender process, a video production company has been selected to create patient education videos for the Spinal Surgery Management Unit. Members of the Patient Panel for Spinal Services will be engaged throughout this process.

🧭 Plan for Every Patient

The Spinal Surgery Management Unit has developed a new system called “Plan for Every Patient.” It helps the team to track every patient’s journey to surgery, identify and remove any delays, and see in real time how cancellations affect all children still waiting. This ensures better coordination and faster responses when issues arise.

📅 Reduction in waiting time for outpatient appointments (2024)

The Spinal Surgery Management Unit has implemented initiatives which have reduced the waiting time for outpatient appointments by 40%. We acknowledge that waiting times for patients are still too long, and we continue to work to reduce the length of time that patients are waiting for appointments.

🗂️Paediatric Spinal Surgery Taskforce minutes on gov.ie (external link)

For spinal service patients and families only.

• Children's Health Ireland acknowledges the publication of HIQA report
• Children's Health Ireland launches new Scoliosis Information Hub for patients and families
• November: Progress update from CHI’s Spinal Surgery Management Unit
• Children's Health Ireland welcomes the publication and findings of Health Service Executive review on the implementation of Scoliosis and Spina Bifida Action Plans 2022 and 2023
• GPs encouraged to use digital forms and X-ray pathways when referring children with suspected scoliosis to Children's Health Ireland
• Progress update from CHI’s Spinal Surgery Management Unit
• Children's Health Ireland to receive new, purpose-built Halo Traction wheelchairs for young scoliosis patients
• Spinal Surgeries Abroad

Attention all GPs:

• Digital scoliosis GP referrals: Send your scoliosis referrals through Healthlink (using the "spinal" drop-down menu for CHI at Crumlin referrals)
• Resource Pack: This pack contains information on the advised approach to take when you suspect scoliosis in a paediatric patient (under 16)
• Minimum Data Set requirements: It is important that all spinal referrals that we receive from GPs contain specific datasets, find more information here.
• Ordering spinal X-ray: In cases of suspected scoliosis, having an X-ray accompany your GP referral letter significantly improves the triage process. See the GP resource pack above for more information.