Sir, – It is exceptional for unsuccessful candidates for a post of master in a Dublin maternity hospital to publicly express their disappointment afterwards. It is exceptional for other colleagues to comment in the media about the process and outcome of such interviews. It is exceptional for an incumbent master to quickly and openly announce the name of the candidate being recommended by the interview panel to a hospital board for ratification as master-elect before the board has had time to meet to consider and formally approve this. It is exceptional for a board to have to fast-track an appointment of a master-elect in response to public controversy.
There have been glaring errors of process and judgment by the Rotunda hospital in the appointment of its next master – all emanating from an inexcusably gender-lopsided interview panel and an outgoing master being directly involved in the interview and appointment of an incoming master who is his private business partner. Such issues cannot simply be swept under the corporate carpet with one stroke of a fast-tracking brush.
In recent years, the Rotunda hospital has invited television cameras into its wards, delivery suite and operating theatres to show us what’s happening in the hospital.
A similar level of transparency is now required to show us what’s happening in its boardroom. – Yours, etc,
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CHRIS FITZPATRICK,
(Retired consultant
obstetrician
and gynaecologist,
former master
of the Coombe Women
and Infants University
Hospital),
Dublin 6.