Excellent letter in the Irish Times today from people who actually know what they're talking about first hand. It refutes the straw-clinging "clinically appropriate" argument; it confirms that a full range of services including abortion are and will continue to be provided at both NMH and St. Vincent's. Time for the hurlers on the ditch to re-evaluate, perhaps?
Sir, -We represent the large majority of trainees in obstetrics and gynaecology in Ireland and are deeply concerned about recent political actions which are serving to delay the development of the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH), co-located on the St Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) site.
At the NMH and SVUH, there is no impediment to abortion care, contraceptive use, sterilisation procedures or fertility assessments, irrespective of clinicians’, midwives’ and ancillary staff’s private views.
We know this first-hand because we work on the ground in both of these institutions.
We are very satisfied that the present, excellent provision of abortion care will continue at the newly built NMH and believe strongly that the current political furore with regard to governance and clinical freedoms to be just that: a political football.
The wording of “clinically appropriate” procedures in the legal framework is being openly debated in the media and political circles.
Let it be absolutely clear, this phrasing is not and will not be an impediment to the services provided to women at the NMH. This term serves to protect the provision of those “clinically appropriate” services in a maternity hospital.
This will avoid the replication of what we witness daily in the general hospital settings where women’s health procedures are often cancelled to prioritise other specialities.
Simply put, St Vincent’s University Hospital patients will not be transferred into the maternity hospital to facilitate hip replacements, bowel surgeries, etc, due to bed or staff shortages in our neighbouring hospital.
The omission of an exhaustive list of “clinically appropriate” services that may or may not be provided also future-proofs the hospital and enables it to deliver any newly discovered medications, surgical techniques or imaging methods without requiring a lengthy amendment to the legal framework.
We want to work in a fit-for-purpose, co-located hospital, where we can provide the highest level of care for obstetric and gynaecology patients. Currently, only one of Ireland’s four tertiary maternity units is co-located with an adult hospital in keeping with international best practice. We believe the clinicians working at the NMH and we support them wholeheartedly in their endeavour to realise this new iteration of the NMH. We know that the care provided will be unconstrained by any religious beliefs. – Yours, etc,
Dr CATHY MONTEITH,
Dr CIARA NOLAN,
Dr MEI YEE NG,
Dr OLADAYO ODUOLA,
Dr EIBHLÍN HEALY,
Dr GILLIAN CORBETT,
Dr NAUREEN YASIR,
Dr MAEVE WHITE,
Dr LUCY BOLGER,
Dr AMY WORRALL,
Dr ALICE O’NEILL,
Dr ELZAHRA IBRAHIM,
Dr DIVYA GAUTAM,
Dr FIONA O’TOOLE,
Dr KATE SEXTON,
Dr LUCY BOLGER,
Dr RACHEL O’KEEFE,
Dr RÓISÍN GRYSON,
Dr SARAH MURPHY,
Junior Obstetrics
and Gynaecology Society,
Dublin 2.