Heartbroken parents call for Harris to resign

THE parents of a nine-year-old boy who spent years awaiting scoliosis surgery before he died have called for former Health Minister Simon Harris to resign.

- BY NICOLA DONNELLY

In 2017, while holding the portfolio, Mr Harris pledged no child in Ireland would wait more than four months for scoliosis treatment.

Harvey Morrison Sherratt, who was from Clondalkin, west Dublin, suffered from severe scoliosis but had to wait seven years for surgery.

Last August, his mother, Gillian Sherratt, learned her son had been removed from Children’s Health Ireland's active scoliosis surgery waiting list - without the family’s knowledge.

Harvey eventually had surgery in December last year, but by then the severe progression of his spinal curve meant it could no longer be fully corrected.