Sir, – I find your editorial description of John Halligan's request for additional cardiac services at University Hospital Waterford as a "pet political project" galling (September 8th). Adding facilities for cardiac care outside the existing service (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) is far from a petty cause. – Yours, etc,
GAVIN O’DONOGHUE,
Foxrock,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – The methodology used to assess need for cardiac catheterisation laboratory capacity in Waterford has captured my imagination. Such a methodology could be applied in other areas to prove a lack of necessity for the provision of extra facilities or services.
One could use it, for example, to disprove the need for additional primary school capacity in an expanding suburb with a school intake capacity of only 30 places per year, and with 60 children coming of school-going age every year. A survey would show that half of the children from the suburb were going elsewhere to attend school, thus proving that the “true” necessity is only for the existing capacity.
This methodology clearly could have wide applicability and utility for various Ministers. – Yours, etc,
Dr TOM HOGAN,
Castleknock, Co Dublin.
Sir, – It seems to me that there is a way forward to defuse the conflict over the second catheterisation laboratory in University Hospital Waterford that would meet the needs of everybody concerned, including, most importantly, the patients in this region.
If you leave aside all the understandable emotion and political hype concerned with the negative finding of the recent report, it is possible to look more logically at the situation. A finding that is not being given much attention is that the present facility is understaffed and so not working at full capacity. It would not make an awful lot of sense to spend a huge amount of scarce money in building another facility that might meet the same fate without addressing this problem first.
A possible solution would be to fully staff the laboratory which is there at the moment, and extend its hours beyond the current five-day week, office-hours operation and put in all the support services needed to carry that out. When these new conditions had been in place for six months or so, then another objective audit could be done to ascertain if the needs of the region were being met.
It would appear to me to be more reasonable to make the present system work properly before putting in another facility with no guarantee that it would function any better. – Yours, etc,
TERESA GRAHAM,
Tramore,
Co Waterford.
Sir, – Pat Leahy's article "Halligan's moves threaten Independents' agenda" (Analysis, September 10th) about the political aspects of the troubles surrounding University Hospital Waterford caused me some considerable annoyance. The characterisation of the maintenance of vital services for a disadvantaged and under-resourced area of the country as "parish-pump politics" is dismissive and unhelpful.
As someone with parents living in south Wexford, I am often worried about what would happen to them in the event of heart problems. It is a certainty that their survival would not be as likely as someone with a similar case in Dublin.
Indeed, when considering the politics of local water distribution, Dublin must have the largest pump in the country. – Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNEDY,
Nuremberg,
Germany.