Proposals from Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) to treat spina bifida and scoliosis patients in “world-class hospitals” outside its remit have been cautiously welcomed.

Tender documents published by CHI on Wednesday have called for applications by hospitals to carry out a minimum of 10 spinal surgeries by the end of the year. The call for hospitals to carry out spinal surgeries comes as a bid to cut the number of children on spina bifida and scoliosis surgery waiting lists.

David Cullinane, Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson, said while he welcomed the proposal from CHI, it must not be used as a stand-in for building more capacity for spinal surgeries at Irish hospitals.

In the tender documents, CHI have said hospitals from outside Ireland will be permitted to apply, but it is “only willing to entrust the treatment of CHI patients to hospitals of the highest quality in terms of the clinical team and the hospitals’ facilities and resources”.

“The ability of the hospital and its clinical team to provide the highest level of care to the patient and their accompanying parent/guardian or carer is of paramount importance,” the tender reads.

“I would imagine this is being done to widen the net, to have more options and to have more hospitals. Obviously, all of that is to be welcomed as it goes, but it is not a substitute for increasing capacity here,” Mr Cullinane said.

“We really need to be looking at what we need in this State to provide the services that are needed.

“They also need to be putting a plan in place to beef up domestic capacity because its still unfair that children who are that sick and who require that level of surgery would actually have to get onto a plane and go elsewhere to get the treatment that they need.”

Mr Cullinane said the Government must be “putting everything possible” into recruiting the highly-skilled surgeons to work in the Ireland’s health service.

“Then making sure we have the theatre capacity and the ability to provide the pre-care and after-care , because that’s what’s missed in all of this as well,” the Waterford TD said.

He added high-dependency beds are required in hospital wards in case of complications with spinal surgeries, with delays possible if this capacity isn’t available.

Figures from June outline there were 132 children ready for surgery and awaiting a scheduled date. In total, there are 245 children on the waiting list for spinal surgeries.