Madam, - I write in respect of Mary Raftery's column on the Mater Hospital's issue with Veritas, the publisher of the book If It Were Only Cancer (November 9th).
Ms Raftery had obviously seen a copy of the letter sent by the hospital's solicitors to Veritas, yet she chose to give a very inaccurate account of the hospital's approach and objectives in this matter.
I wish to clearly state that the hospital has no issue whatsoever with Ms Byrne telling her story fairly anywhere in the media or publicly for that matter. As stated in the letter to Veritas, the hospital believes firmly in the rights of patients to highlight what they perceive to be inadequacies in the health service. That most definitely includes Ms Byrne and her story of what she experienced during her stay to treat her cancer at this hospital five years ago. Her campaign since then has achieved a lot for everyone involved in the health service, most importantly for patients.
That said, the hospital has both the right and obligation to defend its reputation against defamatory remarks and exaggeration where it occurs. In this regard, the hospital has sought the removal, by the publisher, of a handful of passages from any future print runs of the book and its cover.
It takes an extreme analysis to interpret this as an attempt to silence Ms Byrne. Once again, that is not the hospital's aim. - Yours, etc,
BRIAN CONLAN, Chief Executive, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin 1.