Madam, – May I add my plea to the eloquent one of Marion O’Dwyer (June 23rd) to save St Luke’s Hospital? Like your correspondent’s family, my sister and her husband have had first-hand experience of being treated in that wonderful hospital and elsewhere (in their case in St James’s Hospital). While acknowledging the excellence of the staff at the latter, they both say the quality of the care and the peaceful, harmonious surroundings in St Luke’s made a huge difference to how they coped with the disease and its treatment.
We are becoming more aware of how important the holistic approach to patient care is and how much better the outcomes are when it is followed.
There are studies enough out there; I can only quote from my sister’s case. When she learned recently that her cancer had returned, one of her biggest concerns was where she would have to go for her treatment. I wish I could describe the relief she felt when she was told she could go to St Luke’s. Given the choice between a distressingly busy, impersonal and uncomfortable building, and the gentle, calm surroundings of St Luke’s, where every effort is made to ensure the patient’s wellbeing, her relief is not surprising. The opportunity to go to St Luke’s has made a huge difference to her ability to face the challenges now in front of her. It is the difference between hope and despair, between life and death and it is something we should not give away blithely, as the Minister for Health is proposing to do.
I asked my sister last week to describe, if she could, the difference between going to St Luke’s and anywhere else; she said it was their humanity. In the name of that humanity and on behalf of all those in need of it now and in the future, on my knees I beg the Minister to reconsider. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Don’t we all have the right to be treated as Marion O’Dwyer’s father was in St Luke’s Hospital (June 23rd) if we are unfortunate enough to get cancer?
But what reason have we to believe that we will be treated that way in the totally different environment of St James’s Hospital? Recent research shows that if cancer patients are stressed, the efficacy of the various treatments for this disease is reduced. The tranquil grounds, the arts and crafts centre and the complementary therapies at St Luke’s help to reduce stress in patients.
I urge readers to lobby their TDs on this Bill. Save our existing centre of excellence. – Yours, etc,