Sir, - Having for many years been a member of the International Society of Burns Surgeons, and having visited many burns centres abroad, including New York, I would comment on your report "Cork girl in New York for series of operations" (The Irish Times, June 27th).
This could suggest that such operations could not be carried out here in Ireland, which is far from correct.
I can assure unfortunate victims of major burns injuries that all the facilities and expertise required in this field have been available to them here in Ireland for many years. In particular I am familiar with the facilities which were available at Dr Steevens Hospital and now transferred to St James's.
I would further assure patients, that in my opinion they are better treated at home by a fully co-ordinated team of surgeons, with post-operative care, convalescence, physiotherapy, functional rehabilitation, physician's care, psychiatrists, etc. Any one surgeon's techniques in dealing with the disfigurement, deformity and disability in these dreadful cases is not secretive nor confined to any one surgeon or unit.
I hope that this will give assurance to the many patients who may feel they are less fortunate in correcting many of these irretrievable problems. I might also add that the enormous peripheral costs would be avoided. Many good eyebrows have been reconstructed in this country. - Yours, etc.
J. B. Prendiville, Retired Surgeon and Medical Director of the Burns Unit, Dr Steevens Hospital, Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2.