My Proposed Questions to the HSE under Freedom of Information
Posted on April 30, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Health.
The scandal that is the non-vaccination using BCG of children in Cork could have far-reaching implications for the health of many people under the age of 30. Both employees of the then Southern Health Board and the political appointees to the board may have had a say in implementing this negligent policy and continuing to allow it to occur since the 1970’s. It is clear that the health of Cork children is considered less important than that of children from elsewhere in the country.
I’ve just been informed that budget was put aside to deal with this in 2004 and was then re-allocated. In the interests of accuracy I have decided to contact the HSE under the Freedom of information act to find out who, why and when decisions were made in this area since the 1970’s.
Below are my questions. Please add to them or improve on them in the comments section and I’ll put together a combined list and send it to the HSE. It’ll be interesting to see if there is any attempt made to delay the answers until after May 17th.
- On what dates was the decision made and then implemented to stop providing BCG routinely to newborn babies in the Cork region years ago?
- Provide the names of all the senior individuals (medical, administrative, consultant, board members) involved in the making of that decision
- Provide the names of all past or present TDs, Senators or Councillors who were on the Southern Health Board when that decision was made
- Did the board authorise that decision? If so, provide the names of all members of that board
- Provide the names of all past or present TDs, Senators or Councillors who were on the Southern Health Board since the decision
- Confirm whether the provision of BCG as a matter of routine was agreed to be re-introduced at any point since then, on what dates and by whom
- Confirm whether that NEW decision was overturned, for what reason, by whom and when
- Confirm that BCG shots are available in some locations nationally on demand and list the places where there is no waiting list
- Confirm that residents of Cork can avail of these BCG shots and provide contact information for arranging these shots
21 Replies to "My Proposed Questions to the HSE under Freedom of Information"
conor on April 30, 2007
Thanks Dermot, I’ll add those changes.
Did anyone else notice the two page story in The Sunday Business Post yesterday all about resistant forms of TB? They put all that effort into an over the top scare-story and never once mentioned vaccination or the Cork scandal. An amazing piece of journalism really.
Damien Mulley » Blog Archive » Resources for when politicians call on May 1, 2007
[...] Here are some suggested questions to ask from various bloggers or maybe you can use this list from the EastMeath blog or maybe any of the ones directed to Batt O’Keeffe. Conor O’Neill has some good ones in relation to the TB outbreak in Cork. [...]
shattered on May 3, 2007
i still cant believe how little the press have highlighted this issue. surely its in the public interest to let cork parents know their kids are at risk? i like the questions conor, are you going to approach a newspaper with the findings? the echo have been giving it fairly consistent coverage.
conor on May 3, 2007
I’ll send these in over the weekend and if we get a detailed response I’ll pass it on to the press alright.
shattered on May 3, 2007
thats great, im looking forward to hearing what they have to say. from what ive seen, they are very good at dodging questions and giving non-answers.
shattered on May 3, 2007
http://archives.tcm.ie/thekingdom/2001/02/15/story5684.asp
take a look at this page if you can, a story printed in “the kingdom” where it looks as though the people of kerry were not happy to let their children be treated the same as cork children. it also gives a few clues as to why the vaccine is not given in cork and who was responsible for the decision
conor on May 3, 2007
Thanks for that great link!
I’ll see if I can find out if either of those Board Members have any qualifications in infectious diseases, public health or epidemiology.
The last line is interesting and at variance with what I’ve read informally.
conor on May 3, 2007
In March 2006, Dr. Cathal Bredin, who is mentioned in that article as opposing routine BCG, presented at an event called “TB – A Global Disease, International Approaches for Control and Prevention & a Model Programme for Ireland”.
His presentation was titled “TB – approaches for control and prevention – a Southern Irish perspective”.
The irony, well, words fail me.
conor on May 3, 2007
This is a good article with some good quotes from Bredin who appears to be fundamentally opposed to BCG. What he doesn’t do is propose an alternative or explain why Cork has the highest incidence of TB in Ireland.
conor on May 3, 2007
It does appear that the ongoing decision was not due to cost or administrative reasons but because of some powerful medics at board level who oppose BCG.
What we need to find out is whether there were any public health or epidemiology experts on the board at any stage who did support BCG.
shattered on May 3, 2007
now this might sound a bit conspiracy theory-ish but i have the most horrible feeling that they were using cork as a big pilot programme to see if the bcg was really necessary in modern day ireland. i would love to know if our childrens medical details are going to be used in any of their new presentations. my daughter isnt a lab rat! how dare they! am i just being extremely paranoid?
Treasa on May 4, 2007
Just by way of a buried memory: I was born in Limerick in 1972 which is MWHB territory, or at least was. But I grew up in the SHB area but very close to the border with MWHB. When I was 10 or 12 years old, “they” did a sweep through the school to see who had and who had not had the BCG. I was flagged as not having had it (the clue apparently was two small marks in your shoulder) so was sent to have a test to see if I was immune to TB or not. At least that’s how I remember it. At any rate, it was then decided that I did not need the BCG or that I had some immunity to TB. I don’t remember the details to be honest.
Conor, if you’re truly digging into this, it might be worth seeing if you can find any record of that sweep being done, and why it might have been done. Maybe there was a TB outbreak or something; I don’t know.
conor on May 4, 2007
Thanks for that Treasa.
As I just pointed out over on Justin’s blog, we now have 35 years of comparative data on BCG in Ireland. Surely we can now say with absolute certainty whether the “grand Cork experiment” has worked or not?
shattered on May 4, 2007
conor, i thought i was just being paranoid but now the more i look at it the more i think they were using our kids as guinea pigs. if they had managed to go for a few more years without an outbreak they could have used cork as an example in arguments against the bcg. why else would they vehemently oppose the bcg even though it was supposed to be part of a nation wide scheme? i feel sick to my stomach about it all. where do i go from here?
conor on May 4, 2007
The problem with a lot of medical policy is that it remains “opinion based” rather than “data or fact based”.
One or two powerful individuals with strong views can control not just hospitals but also hugely important policies.
I’m coming to the conclusion that the cult of the consultant must come to an end as it really is responsible for so much of the dysfunction in the Irish health service.
shattered on May 4, 2007
yes that is very true. i know these people are hugley intelligent and experienced and i would trust them with my life if i had to , etc etc etc but it seems that sometimes they forget the human side of things and put research ahead of parental concerns. im probably not the best judge at the minute having spent another day in hospital (with a fantastic, sympathetic, lovely doctor i hasten to add,) but i do feel our children are just statistics now to be used as the consultants see fit. i need to feel like i am doing something about it. what can i do?
conor on May 5, 2007
I really don’t what what you can practically do apart from kicking up a stink at every opportunity.
Maybe every visit to hospital, you should ask “why did this happen” “what’s stopping it happening again” and “who is responsible”. Particularly to consultants who probably do know the answers to all of the above. Don’t accept fob-offs.
Have there been many letters to Examiner etc? Why are all the newspaper stories I’ve read about the outbreak pussy-footing around why it happened?
shattered on May 10, 2007
http://www.irishhealth.com/index.html?level=4&id=5723
hi conor. ive been doing a bit of googling and i can se very clearly now what is going on. the reason very high-up doctors were opposed to the bcg is bacause when tb was so effectively controlled in other areas in the past, posts were no longer deemed necessary and senior consultants were facing redundancy (shock horror.) so in order to protect their own jobs, babies and young children were put at risk. on purpose.
Des on July 11, 2007
Looks like the French have made the BCG non-compulsory except for where children are at risk (eg cases of TB in the family etc).
shattered on July 11, 2007
i think thats what the hse were hoping to do here, using cork as a test run to see if it would be more economically viable to only vaccinate the at-risk groups. i think the trouble is we are a very small country with a huge history of tb in the not-too-distant past, it is far too soon to be thinking about scaling down the vaccination programme just yet.
dermot on April 30, 2007
In the first question drop the last two words (years ago) as they’re superfluous.
Supplemental question(s). Did anyone oppose the decision to drop the BCG?
You could also ask for voting records of the various decisions, these should be in the minutes of the various board meetings, might show something interesting.