Madam, - The Minister for Health is rushing headlong towards the signing of a statutory instrument which will enable her to establish the development board of the new National Paediatric Hospital. The function of the board, according to the draft instrument, "shall be to plan, design, build, furnish, equip and commission a national paediatric hospital in accordance with the framework brief approved by the executive" (my italics), i.e. the HSE. The board shall also "prepare plans for the transfer of services from the relevant hospitals to the national paediatric hospital".
The board will have 12 members, of whom three will be nominees of the existing hospitals (one each) and one will be a nominee of (unspecified) "relevant academic interests"; eight will effectively be nominees of the Minister or the HSE.
There will not be any elected representative of the main "user-group" - i.e. the parents of patients. In the planning of what is an extremely complex, sophisticated and expensive state-of-the-art hospital, there is no requirement that any of the board members should have direct, hands-on experience or expertise in paediatric healthcare.
For at least two years, the "transitional group" driving the project within and for the HSE has had no practising paediatrician as a member - and the HSE has not even bothered to explain why.
In recent days we have heard theoretical debates about the necessity for, the furnishings and possible eligible occupants of hell.Meanwhile, we are blundering blindfold into the construction of a dysfunctional purgatory for a generation of healthcare professionals - and our children.- Yours, etc,
MAURICE O'CONNELL, Oakpark, Tralee, Co Kerry.
Madam, - I read with interest Mary Harney's article in your edition of March 27th on the process by which radiation oncology services at St Luke's Hospital are being transferred to St James's Hospital. She writes: "I have ensured that experts at St Luke's are centrally involved in the planning and delivery of a national plan for radiation oncology".
What a pity she did not adopt a similar approach when deciding to locate the new children's hospital on the Mater site. As your columnist Fintan O'Toole has pointed out, it is not too late to apply the same standards to planning hospital care for children as she does for adults. - Yours, etc,
GER O'SULLIVAN, Grosvenor Court, Dublin 6W.