Madam, – It is depressing and demoralising as a doctor to hear again and again, over the years, public representatives engaging in discussion about matters of health provision that frequently shows no understanding of that subject, and is very often populist, irresponsible and dangerous, if digested by the public.
An exchange between the Taoiseach and Mr Enda Kenny last week in the Dáil included comments by both of them about the children’s hospitals having to co-operate in the future. The implication obviously is that they do not co-operate. The three children’s units in this city have for years co-operated structurally, in planning, and on a day-to-day basis.
The emergency departments of all three children’s units regularly have difficulty in terms of bed capacity, and if one institution is stuck for beds for children requiring admission, they are regularly transferred across the city to one of the other two units, if there is spare capacity there. The same applies to the demands on intensive care unit spaces between Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin and the Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street, and has applied for years. I think it is important to state these facts lest convenient throwaway comments by politicians with powerful implications are allowed to sit and fester.
In general, comment by politicians is so poorly informed that despair inhibits one from writing a letter such as this, but my patience has run out. This finally occurred when listening to Pat Kenny’s morning show, where he interviewed all of the candidates for the European elections in Ireland North West.
All of the representatives wanted centres of excellence for cancer to be open in Letterkenny, Castlebar, and Sligo (“centres of excellence at every crossroads!”).
When challenged by Mr Kenny on this, none of them budged from this ridiculous position. This is pathetic populism. The electorate deserves better. – Yours, etc,