An Irish hospital to match the best in the US
So you might imagine my concern when my GP suggested that I needed a short hospital stay for my ailment.
In fact, given what I had read and the images I had seen of Irish hospital admission facilities I gave serious thought to getting a next flight back to America.
But my GP can be quite persuasive, and she considered my case to be so serious that she drove some miles to treat me at the house. This is unheard of now in most of the USA.
She wrote some notes on my condition and I took them with me to Mallow hospital. Then the surprise. In an hour or so I was examined, x-rayed, admitted, settled into a bed in a four-bed room , and my treatment had begun.
I stayed three days. I have been for two short stays in hospitals in the Boston area, not exactly a medical backwater. My stay in Mallow was better than one of these and equal to the second. The staff in Mallow were as professional and competent as any. They were also very busy attending to my own and other patients’ needs.
I had thought of mentioning some names, but the list would be too long as it includes everyone with whom I came in contact, without exception.
In one important respect they outshone the staff at both the Massachusetts hospitals. They retained their good humour whatever the situation. I’m not just praising Mallow hospital. I also want to tell you that in spite of your theatrical politicians, your jaded news columnists and your so very solemn RTE commentators, the real public work of your country is still being done, and done quite well.
Not, I suspect, just in Mallow hospital but in the other hospitals, and the schools and the Gárda stations and many other places where public servants actually serve.
Robert Collier,
Framingham,
Massachusetts,
USA.
