Sir, - As someone who recently spent two weeks receiving treatment in the new Tallaght Hospital, I heard with regret of the resignation of Dr David McCutcheon as chief executive. It was a considerable achievement for him to have overseen the amalgamation of three hospitals, with all the complex logistical difficulties involved, even without the strain and uncertainty over Government funding.
As a patient in a public surgical ward at Tallaght, I was impressed by the individual care given to each patient by the nursing, medical and surgical teams. My fellow patients had nothing but praise for the hospital and its general ethos. One remarked that the doctors talked to the patients, not at them or above them, a fact which was deeply appreciated by other patients present. It is an environment where patients are likely to get well quickly, and ultimately be efficient for the health service.
Tallaght, a new satellite town, has deservedly got a quality institution in its midst to serve its people, one which residents of other parts of the city will be glad to attend.
The founding institutions, Meath, Adelaide and Children's Hospitals, have long traditions of quality service to the community and also reciprocal voluntary support from the public in the form of fund-raising and serving on boards. Care must be taken not to undermine this voluntary commitment, with its enormous benefits financially and otherwise to quality healthcare.
Mr Cowen, the Minister for Health, has an unenviable task in overseeing the distribution of funds for health in the fairest way possible for the best general good of all our citizens. At the moment relations between the Department of Health and the board of Tallaght Hospital are obviously acrimonious and destructive, which militates against energies being used, on both sides, in the best way for the public. Let us hope that a middle way can be found in solving the deep underlying issues. - Yours, etc., Ian Broad,
Villiers Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6.