Madam, - There has been widespread coverage in the media over the past few days regarding comments made by Prof Brendan Drumm, CEO of the Health Service Executive, that the children's hospitals have not always acted in the best interests of patients.
The staff of Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, fail to understand why these comments were made and find them unhelpful at this time. As a former colleague for many years, he is well aware of the dedication and support of the staff here for the planning and delivery of acute services for children, based on best international practice.
Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin has consistently promoted, supported and delivered tertiary level paediatric care with the sole objective of achieving the best health outcomes for children with the most acute and complex medical and surgical conditions. The staff of Our Lady's, in fact, continue to raise funds to deliver essential services which support patient care, parent facilities, education and research.
Our expertise, dedication, reputation and track record in providing high-quality, safe and effective paediatric care deserves more than to be dismissed as self-interest.
The comments made can only be interpreted as an attempt to distract the public from the real issues. The proposed development would site the new Children's Hospital in a constrained city-centre location, which is poorly accessible by private transport, which has insufficient parking, inadequate room for expansion and with virtually no open space. This would provide an entirely unsuitable environment for treating the sick children of this country and accommodating their families for the next 50 years.
These are the real issues which need to be dealt with in a transparent and substantive manner in order to restore credibility to this important project.
The staff of Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin will continue to strive for what is objectively in the best interest of the children and their families, whom we have served for the past 50 years. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL LYONS, Chief Executive,
Dr PAT DOHERTY, Chairman of Medical Board,
GERALDINE REGAN, Director of Nursing,
CATHERINE CUNNINGHAM, Chairperson, Health Care Professionals at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin 12.