Doctors and health boards could end up facing child abuse charges unless they stop giving painful intramuscular injections to children, a professor of nursing has claimed.
These injections, given with long, wide gauge needles are, according to Dr Linda Shields, professor of nursing at the University of Limerick, being given to relieve pain after surgery and for the administration of antibiotics.
"I've seen it happening myself and I've been told it's a widespread practice around much of Ireland," she said.
She said they were now rarely given in other countries because there were other more effective ways to give pain relief. It could, for example, be given intravenously, she said.
"I've taken it up with an executive of one of the health boards and I have advised them my experience would indicate they could be liable for a child abuse charge because this does constitute child abuse because it causes undue pain that is so unnecessary for children," she said.
"There is lots of research out there that intramuscular injections are not as effective as other forms of pain relief and they hurt like hell," she added.
The professor of nursing at the Kean University in New Jersey, Prof Virginia Fitzsimons, expressed surprise that intramuscular injections were still being routinely given to children in the Republic.
"I was almost sick when I heard about this. Adults haven't even been given these injections in the States for 15 years. It's archaic and there's no need for it. Why should Irish babies suffer such pain when it's so unnecessary," she asked.
Prof Shields said not all doctors subscribed to the practice. "However, around Ireland there are doctors who continue to order these to be given by nurses. Nurses know it's wrong but feel disempowered to speak up but they would like to see change and that is where we come in.
"We would like to see parents educated about it so they can actively resist it and ask for alternatives.
"We would also like to be able to empower the nurses who want to say 'we don't want to do this' but don't know how and we would like to encourage the doctors to go to the literature to see there is so much research out there to back up what we are saying. We are not flying by the seat of our pants," she added.
She stressed she was not talking about childhood vaccinations which were given by a tiny needle. They were to be encouraged, she said.
Dr James Reilly, president of the Irish Medical Organisation, said it was more dangerous to give pain relief intravenously than intramuscularly. "If given too fast intravenously it can cause respiratory depression and death. So it's a more hazardous way of giving the drug, albeit faster acting," he said. One had, he added, to balance discomfort with risk.
Furthermore Dr Reilly said if pain relief was to be given intravenously a doctor would have to be present and pressure on their time could be a factor in nurses being asked to give pain relief by injecting a child in muscle.
Asked about the suggestion that doctors or health boards could face child abuse charges if they didn't stop, he said: "We need to keep a perspective on things".