Madam, - Dr Bernard McCartaasks (February 21st) how we got into the mess involving the consultants, the Department of Health and the Medical Defence Union. Surely the current system of paying damages of up to €4 million or more is a related factor.
These damages are ostensibly awarded to parents so that full provision is made to ensure the welfare of the child for whom they act. This ignores the fact that many of these children do not enjoy a normal life-expectancy and that the State already provides some of the services required.
We should adopt a fairer and more rational system by providing full State services for all children with cerebral palsy. There were 586 cases of cerebral palsy collected by the South of Ireland Cerebral Palsy Register in Kerry and Cork between 1966 and 1995, an average of about 30 cases a year. In all of the Republic, there must be at least 100 cases every year.
Surely all these children's families should receive equal consideration from a caring and prosperous society. The relatively rare case where negligence is proven against a hospital and/or doctor should be included. In the latter cases the family may still have access to the courts but, with full State support for all cases of cerebral palsy, the damages are likely to be at a more appropriate level and negligence might be interpreted more realistically than it is at present.
We need a system which assists all affected families and which at the same time halts the spiralling increase in indemnity insurance premiums. The large sums currently paid out in compensation could be diverted to providing better support for families caring for children with cerebral palsy children.
There is a great need for legal reform in the area of cerebral palsy, and in other areas of medical litigation too. - Yours, etc.,
RISTEÁRD MULCAHY (Professor Emeritus), St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin 14.