Sir, – While not wishing to pour fuel on a fire, I feel obliged to point out that separate hospital institutions can co-exist on the same footprint under separate governance arrangements. The new children’s hospital will reside on the St James’s Hospital campus, albeit owning the 12 acres it is built on. They will share support services. Furthermore, it has been indicated that the Coombe Women and Infants’ University Hospital will also move to this campus, presumably under its own board.
However, that is in the future.
The present situation is that, for decades, the Jonathan Swift Clinic, as an approved centre under mental health legislation, has come under direct HSE governance. In latter years, St Luke’s hospital on St James’s campus comes under the governance of the St Luke’s hospital board. Neither of these hospitals comes under the governance of St James’s Hospital board, yet all co-exist peaceably and in a professionally fraternal manner, with daily movement of staff and patients across the invisible boundaries for mutual benefit. Each has a separate financial stream.
The fears expressed by the National Maternity Hospital can be assuaged by a simple collegial gesture by St Vincent’s University Hospital. I would hope the new Minister for Health can assist the process. After all, he who pays the piper usually calls the tune. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK K PLUNKETT,
Medical Director,
St James’s Hospital,
Dublin 8;
Clinical Professor
of Emergency Medicine,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.