Sir, - I am writing to indicate the extremely low level of consideration with which I met during a recent consultation at the Adelaide-Meath Hospital, Tallaght. Firstly, being unfamiliar with the new geography, I attempted to ask a receptionist for directions to the X-ray department and was met with a startling degree of uncivility and unhelpfulness. However, much more objectionable was the fact that while I underwent a thoracic scan, which is painful (notwithstanding the doctor's comments) and worrying - also rendering a female patient such as myself rather vulnerable - there was the presence throughout of a non-medical male member of staff, without my consent, as this had not been sought.
I have in the past attended two of Tallaght's progenitor hospitals, where, despite the outward appearances of age and discomfort, I was never moved to complain about the treatment meted out by various staff members. It is apparent to me that in assuming the guise of a brand new institution, the Adelaide-Meath hospital has acquired a brand new policy of disregard for its patients. - Yours, etc., Melanie Brown,
Bushy Park Road, Terenure, Dublin 6.