SOME members of the board of Tallaght hospital are seeking a special meeting to consider what steps are available to it to fight what is seen as the erosion of the hospital's charter.
This follows the decision of the Department of Health to proceed with a recommendation from the National Cancer Forum to centralise the diagnosis and treatment planning of childhood leukemia in Crumlin hospital.
The diagnosis and treatment of childhood leukaemia, along with other blood diseases, was one of the specialities of the National Children's Hospital in Harcourt, which moved to Tallaght in July.
One of the terms of the charter for the amalgamated Adelaide, Meath and NCH, which all moved to Tallaght, was that the services in the base hospitals would continue to exist in Tallaght.
Referring to the need for a special board meeting, one member said the board should consider what steps are necessary "to clarify the status of the charter, and whether it has any meaning or not." The steps considered would include legal action, he said.
"What should have been a symbol of unity and reconciliation has been turned into a symbol of betrayal and mistrust, of how you can edge minorities out of healthcare," he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Health confirmed that the decision to transfer the diagnosis and treatment planning of childhood leukemia from Tallaght to Crumlin still stood, despite the controversy around it.
Asked if the committee of the three chairmen of the three paediatric hospitals, under the chairmanship of Ms Miriam Hederman-O'Brien, to which it was referred, was reviewing the decision, the spokesman said: "The whole decision is not being reviewed. The committee is only looking at the implementation of it. The treatment plan will be drawn up in Crumlin, but treatment can be delivered locally."
The Tallaght Hospital Action Group will hold a briefing meeting for the local community next Tuesday to discuss the situation. It alleges that two other services in the NCH component of the hospital are under threat, the children's accident and emergency service and specialist surgery.
Mr Ritchie O'Reilly, its PRO, said various services in the hospital have been cut due to the financial crisis. Children in Hospital Ireland, a charity which supports children in hospital and their parents, has called for political and sectional allegiances to be set aside in the interests of comprehensive planning of services.