Madam, - Dr M. John Kennedy, Consultant Medical Oncologist at St James's Hospital (June 27th), writes that I have made "ill-formed assumption" about the "de facto Catholic approach" prevailing even in officially secular hospitals such as St James's Hospital. The key point is that neither Dr Kennedy nor anyone else can guarantee the approach that may be taken in such hospitals as one person in a key position can make a huge difference to the way patients are treated. Hospital care in Ireland is replete with examples.
The only hospital in the Republic which has an explicit statutory guarantee for all patients that they will be treated in a private, confidential relationship with their doctors is the Adelaide & Meath Hospital, Dublin, incorporating the National Children's Hospital. This is provided for in the charter of the hospital approved by the Oireachtas in 1996.
I can assure Dr Kennedy that I have been involved in Irish healthcare long enough to be quite well informed as to how patients are actually treated. - Yours, etc,
Dr FERGUS O'FERRALL, Director, Adelaide Hospital Society, Adelaide & Meath Hospital, Tallaght, Dublin 24.
Madam, - I am writing to clarify some of the issues raised in the article "The crucial question of genetics and ethics" by Kathy Sheridan (Weekend Review, June 24th). This suggested that families with genetic disorders attending some hospitals might not receive full information, which would understandably raise concern in those of your readers who may be affected by genetic conditions. I wish to clarify the position in the National Centre for Medical Genetics (NCMG), which provides a clinical and laboratory service for families, both adults and children, with genetic disorders.
We see more than 5,000 patients annually in clinics throughout the country, and I can reassure your readers that all the families seen are given full information on the range of options available to them, reproductive and otherwise, both here and abroad. A family can then consider their situation, and autonomously make the decision that is best suited to them. Most of the staff have worked in other countries and our practice in giving information does not differ from other genetic centres in UK or North America. The role of the clinicians and genetic counsellors in the NCMG is to provide full information and help families to understand their genetic situation. - Yours, etc,
Prof ANDREW GREEN, Director, National Centre for Medical Genetics, Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin 12.