Can we trust paediatric hospital board?

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney is rushing towards the signing of a statutory instrument which will enable her to establish the development board of the new National Paediatric Hospital.

The function of the board, according to the draft instrument, “shall be to plan, design, build, furnish, equip and commission a national paediatric hospital in accordance with the framework brief approved by the executive” — the HSE — and to “prepare plans for the transfer of services from relevant hospitals to the National Paediatric Hospital”.

The board will consist of 12 members, of whom three will be nominees of the existing hospitals (one each), one will be a nominee of (unspecified) “relevant academic interests” and eight will effectively be nominees of the minister or the HSE.

There will not be any elected representative of the main user group — the parents of patients.

In the planning of what is a complex hospital, there is no requirement that any board member should have hands-on experience or expertise in paediatric healthcare provision.

Would you send your children to a hospital designed by these people? Silly question. You will have no choice.

Maurice O’Connell

19 Forge Park

Oakpark

Tralee

Co Kerry