More than one allergy service
You state there is no publicly appointed allergy expert in Ireland (wrong, there is one in Cork).
Most of the details about allergy attributed to me were lifted from the transcripts of my oral evidence this month to the House of Lords Science and Technology Subcommittee on Allergy.
My mother says that qualifies me, in anyone’s eyes, as an expert.
Your reporter probably thought so, too, when she sought my views, but we could not arrange an interview. I am an expert who just happens not to work in Dublin. For the Irish Examiner to be so Dublin-focused is disappointing.
Your feature article stated that a child has to wait 18 months to see an allergist who visits from the UK on 10 days a year (correct, if your view is confined to the M50).
However, our weekly allergy clinic in Cork has a waiting time of about 14 weeks and many families have already made the journey from Dublin and further afield.
Like many other services that grow from university appointments, it could do with more backing by the HSE, but that is an issue for another day.
The statement by Crumlin children’s hospital that they are seeking an immunologist is disingenuous.
Allergists and immunologists share some parts of higher specialist training, but if they need an allergist they should appoint an allergist.
I do not think they would appoint an orthopaedic surgeon to do cardiac transplantation, though they too share some parts of higher specialist training.
As part of their review of paediatric services, the HSE and Department of Health and Children need to examine the context in which some tertiary services are delivered, and others could be delivered, in hospitals outside Dublin.
Who knows, it might even help address their decentralisation targets, too. Surely that is too good an opportunity to miss.
Jonathan O’B Hourihane
Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health
UCC
Consultant Paediatrician
Cork University Hospital
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