Experience reflects well on health service

I was intrigued to read MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan’s account of his recent experience of the emergency department when taking his seven week old child. Mr Flanagan likened it to a “ war zone hospital”.

The basic facts of the story are this:

Mr Flanagan and child arrive at A&E and are seen by a nurse within an hour and two hours later by a doctor. They were then discharged after nothing was found wrong with the child.

The actual facts of Mr Flanagan’s experience reflect well on the health service. An overanxious parent brings a child to hospital, gets seen by a consultant within three hours and is discharged.

The A&E works on a system of priority whereby medical staff prioritise sick people in need of urgent treatment over others who are not.

Indeed, the only trauma that Mr Flanagan suffered was difficulty with a phone signal.

Like a warzone hospital... First world trauma indeed.

David Moore

Whitworth Road

Dublin 11