Sir, – We the undersigned clinical directors at Beaumont hospital wish to affirm our support for proposals to build the National Children’s Hospital on the grounds of Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.
We have been working hard for the past three years to develop an Academic Health Centre between Beaumont Hospital, Connolly Hospital and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, in effect to create one organisation. This work is now reaching a level of maturity, alongside the Department of Health’s stated plan for hospital groups. In this context the proposal to build the National Children’s Hospital at Connolly is put forward by the Academic Health Centre as one organisation.
We have a long history of providing paediatric care in areas such as neurosurgery, transplant care and cochlear implant surgery, along with significant care of teenagers and young adults transitioning from the paediatric environment to adult care in areas such as cystic fibrosis and diabetes.
We wish to state clearly that the required McKinsey specialities will be provided to children on site at the Connolly campus, in the new hospital. We do not plan to have children travelling along the M50 for care.
Moreover, we are of the firm opinion that the Connolly site offers the best access to all children of the country for medical care.
The potential for inevitable expansion and development is unparalleled elsewhere. The surrounding environment will allow for development of a truly child-centred facility.
In conclusion, we believe the Connolly site offers the only viable site for the development of a national hospital for children. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Harry McGee suggests (Home News, October 23rd) that the choice of the Belcamp site in Dublin, because it is in Minister for Health James Reilly’s constituency, might prove difficult for both Government parties to defend in the light of the controversy surrounding the selection of two towns in north Dublin for primary care centres.
Surely the thing that would be most difficult for the parties to defend would be choosing the wrong site due to political cowardice? – Yours, etc,