Madam, - The relocation of at least two national specialist hospitals has been controversial recently. Other hospital buildings will need to be replaced in the next decade or two. The solution is simple. All should be placed on a single large "health park" on the M50 to be accessible to all parts of the country, and large enough to eventually absorb all the specialist hospitals, medical schools and health sciences for the eastern part of the country.
Many cities have planned and relocated their hospitals in this way, notably Chicago. Although such a site will be slow to get going, Belfield looked sparse 30 years ago and is now vibrant.
The obvious site is the Abbottstown campus of 300 acres, which already has two hospitals, Connolly and Cappagh, and has no other established development plan.
- Yours, etc,
Prof HARRY KENNEDY, Clinical Director and Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14.