The parents of Harvey Sherratt (9), who suffered while waiting for scoliosis surgery, have said they were “shocked” at a whistleblower’s claims that Children's Health Ireland (CHI) had removed their son from its active spinal surgery waiting list after it wrongly determined he was a “palliative” patient.
The protected disclosure by a CHI insider, seen by this reporter, alleges the boy was later deemed to be “suitable for surgery once bone density is improved” by a consultant surgeon, based at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), who had examined the boy in Dublin, in May 2024.
The disclosure alleges that despite senior CHI staff being made aware of this, management was misinformed that the GOSH consultant had in fact “agreed with the CHI opinion” that the boy was “not fit or ready for surgery”.
“Even if Harvey was palliative, which I can say 100 per cent he was not, why is that not in his medical records? Why was he not linked to a palliative care team? It makes no sense,” said Harvey’s mother, Gillian Sherratt.
“Harvey wasn’t even on prescription pain relief, which you’d think would be the very least a child receiving palliative care would be getting,” Ms Sherratt said.
Ms Sherratt said the claims made in the protected disclosure came as a “huge shock” to her and her husband, Stephen Morrison.
Ms Sherratt said her son’s medical team “not once” mentioned during Harvey’s treatment that he required palliative care.
She said: “I think we would remember that discussion”.
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