Sir, – Your correspondent referred to the "unanimous" opposition among the consultant body to the proposed name of the New Children's Hospital (Martin Wall, October 27th).
The unanimous view described is only among those who attended the meeting of the Joint Medical Board. I was unable to attend the meeting as I was on call in Tallaght paediatric emergency department and I, for one, am not against the new name of the hospital group. The name, Phoenix Childrens Health, was chosen by children and vetted by a multidisciplinary group involving staff, consultants, parents, patients and children’s groups. As consultants, we need to make sure that we do not consider ourselves more important than our patients or their parents.
It has also been postulated that there will be major confusion between Phoenix Dublin and Phoenix Arizona. There is a massive tertiary level hospital in Sydney called St Vincents as well as innumerable Mater Hospitals across the US/Australia. This has not created insurmountable confusion at international meetings, not least, I suspect, because of the different accents!
In paediatrics, we have much bigger challenges ahead in ensuring that the ambitious model of care envisaged for Phoenix Children’s Health is acted upon with adequate resources so that the goal of quality care in the right place at the right time is achieved. – Yours, etc,
Dr TURLOUGH BOLGER,
Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine,
Tallaght Hospital, Dublin 24.
Sir, – What about Tír na nÓg? The name Phoenix is for the birds! – Yours, etc,
LIAM Ó CUINNEAGÁIN,
Gleann Cholm Cille,
Dún na nGall.