Key questions remain as surgeon referred to Medical Council over spinal devices
ON Monday, health authorities made the bombshell revelation that a surgeon at Temple Street had stepped down and been referred to the Medical Council for – among other things – implanting unauthorised devices in children.
In its announcement, the Health Service Executive said it had commissioned a new external review into ‘the clinical care provided by an individual consultant’ at the children’s hospital. This followed two previous reports which found a concerning level of post-surgical complications in the surgeon’s patients, as well as separate, later revelations that the surgeon had implanted medically unauthorised springs in three children.
The surgeon is Mr Conor Green and he stepped down from performing kyphectomy – the most complex spinal surgery – in August 2022 and stopped performing complex spinal surgery on children with Spina Bifida last November.
He ceased all spinal surgeries in May this year and all surgery in July. Appearing on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Thursday night, HSE chief clinical lead Colm Henry failed to answer a number of key questions relating to the surgery scandal, including where the springs had come from and whether they had gone through the usual protocols before reaching the theatre floor.
The HSE and CHI also largely failed to answer those and a series of other questions from the Irish Mail on Sunday this week. Among those queries were whether the surgeries in question had been made more complicated by the fact that children had waited so long – in many cases years – to receive their operations. A CHI spokeswoman said: ‘According to the Boston Review, the complications have nothing to do with how long the patients waited.’
The MoS also asked whether there had been any previous concerns expressed about the surgeon’s outcomes prior to those mentioned in the report, and why the surgeon had been allowed to continue to perform
complex surgery months after colleagues had expressed concerns. CHI did not respond directly to these queries but said he had ceased complex spinal surgery shortly after concerns were raised by staff in October and November last year.
In response to detailed queries about the unauthorised devices, including where they had been obtained, if they had been approved for use, if they had gone through clinical engineering and sterilisation before arriving at the surgical floor and how many people knew they were being used, a CHI spokeswoman said: ‘An active serious incident investigation by a team of external experts is currently underway to determine how unauthorised devices were used in spinal surgeries in CHI at Temple Street.’
Asked whether the implantation of unauthorised devices could potentially constitute a criminal offence and whether gardaí had been contacted, CHI would only say a ‘referral has been made to the Irish Medical Council’.
She added: ‘In response to engagement with the external review team in May 2023, the clinician volunteered to cease doing all spinal surgery in May 2023. Additional clinical governance controls and supports for the clinician were also put in place during this period.
‘In response, the multiple investigations and reviews in train, and with CHI senior management being aware of the new incident of the non-CE marked medical device implants, the clinician volunteered to ceased all surgeries in July 2023.
The clinician is currently in a HR process and is on leave but not suspended. As the clinician is in a HR process we cannot comment further on HR matters.’
Asked if there was any comparable data for outcomes at Crumlin Hospital, CHI said Crumlin, ‘does not perform the same volume of surgery on spina bifida patients. We have undertaken an internal clinical review on the small number of spina bifida patients who had complex surgery in Crumlin.’