Letters to the Editor, June 11th: On hospital consultants, gender issues and book censorship

Irish Times

a day ago

Sir, – Paediatricians are perceived as the kinder and less worldly members of the medical profession. That they have developed a toxic work environment for themselves and their nursing and junior medical colleagues is sad and dangerous.
Few of their GP colleagues knew or suspected it. As Priscilla Lynch has pointed out ('
Children's health crisis will roll on until we have transparency,'
June 9th) neither did the Department of Health, the Minister, the NTPF and the HSE know about it until it was reported in the media.
Paediatrics in Dublin operates in discrete sites without much recourse to GP or hospital colleagues and where poor professional behaviours can be normalised and kept secret.
Paediatrics will now be decanted from three different hospitals with differing traditions, patient bases and cultures on to an expensive new facility. Expecting them to work harmoniously is a highly irresponsible pipe dream.
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The history of hospital mergers in Dublin is an unhappy one with Beaumont and Tallaght taking years to settle.
In the business world mergers are commonplace with attendant job threats keeping staff in line with employer expectations. In hospital mergers this does not apply as staff unions will negotiate for all existing staff to keep their jobs, with possibly some dislocation payments as well.
This applies to the consultant staff too, meaning that management can't manage. How are managers expected to deal with a few highly unionised, well-paid doctors with track records of bullying junior staff and playing the system.
Changing a toxic culture will not be easy.
The sites of two of the hospitals being merged on to the new hospital may soon be up for sale in a rampant property market. It is not clear who will be the beneficiaries.
A proportion of the proceeds of such sales needs to be earmarked to allow management of those who are burnt out, those wishing early retirement and those who do not embrace the unrivalled opportunities the new facility offers.
Funding of multidisciplinary ethics and professional seminars are needed to develop an ethos to make a success of the new hospital.
This is after all a professional issue where respect for colleagues, junior and senior, has been damaged.
The fiascos of previous mergers would be avoided, and patients will be sure to receive the care they deserve.
The introverted and secretive nature of existing paediatric practice needs to be addressed with good open management, adherence to employment contracts and governance that draws on international experience.
Yours, etc
TOM O'DOWD MD
GPs at Tallaght Cross,
Dublin.
Reporting on gender issues
Sir, – I was delighted to see Hugh Linehan's article asking some long overdue soul-searching questions about Irish media's reticence on covering gender issues ('
Why is there so little coverage of gender identity issues in the Irish media
?' June 10th) and highlighting the shameful quiet cancelling of Stella O'Malley.
Throughout that difficult period Stella was helping hundreds of families in Ireland and around the world through Genspect, the Irish based organisation she founded.
These families were desperately trying to support loved ones experiencing gender dysphoria, but had been devastated by ideological capture among mental health and medical professionals.
As a psychotherapist watching this happen within her profession Stella spoke up and did something when she thought people were being harmed, the same way others have bravely spoken up in the past.
I hope now the tide seems to be turning away from loud activist voices and towards the evidence on gender issues that Irish media gets back to basics reporting the facts even when the facts aren't popular. – Yours, etc,
LOUISE WHELAN,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Why is Hugh Linehan's article on the lack of coverage of gender identity issues hidden in the Business section? – Yours, etc,
DR JOHN DOHERTY,
Gweedore,
Co Donegal.
Sir, –Congratulations on Hugh Linehan's long overdue article on the topic of gender identity and the silence of the Irish media.
This refusal to cover the issue of gender identity in Irish society and all its implications is shameful and reflects the worst type of censorship – self censorship.
The boycotting and failure to cover anything that might be construed as gender critical views, authors, news items, women's sports, women's groups, etc., has echoes of the worst excesses of the State censorship in the last century.
I now look forward to more coverage and analysis of the issues and developments involved in gender identity theory such as the Cass Report, the banning of puberty blockers, the UK Supreme Court ruling, the attitude of our political parties, etc.
JULIA ANDERSON
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – I was appalled to read Hugh Linehan's description of the Cass Report as 'a years-long, evidence based review of youth gender services led by a respected paediatrician' without any acknowledgement of the controversy and allegations of bias that surround the report, as well as its criticism internationally by many professional bodies, healthcare providers, academics and researchers.
Particularly jarring in a piece calling for honesty of discussion, such an omission is, at best, misleading and deeply irresponsible. – Yours, etc,
EOGHAN O'SULLIVAN,
Dublin.
Sir, – Hugh Linehan's article erroneously describes Stella O'Malley as 'an activist with a clear ideological stance'.
Providing children and their parents with accurate information about potentially harmful or unnecessary interventions honours the clinician's obligation to act in the patient's best interests and upholds their duty to do no harm. This is not activism, it's ethical practice.
If advocating for evidence-based, compassionate care makes one an 'activist', then every parent, doctor, psychotherapist, and indeed every journalist, deserves the badge.
And if activism is the measure of a concerned and moral adult, what does it say about those who don't qualify? – Yours, etc,
SANDRA ADAMS,
Baldoyle,
Dublin 13.
Gardening leave
Sir, – I recently retired from the health sector and I now have a huge interest in gardening. I can work at my own pace. If a plant is in the wrong place I can reposition it or get rid of it altogether.
Other plants can be kept in check by a good 'clipping.' I can have great ideas and change them next season if they don't work out.
I can ease off in the winter and start afresh in the spring.
So if you want job satisfaction gardening is the answer. – Yours, etc,
MARY WALSH,
Stillorgan,
Dublin.
Parking and entitlement
Sir, – I am lucky enough to live on a residential street in Dublin comprised of terraced housing.
Parking is on-street and is essentially a free for all. Our nine-year-old son has a disability and a part of his condition is that he is a flight risk.
Some households on our street have up to five cars, parking where they like while choosing to place a cone outside their own residence, thereby preventing others from parking there.
We have politely requested that members from a multi-car household avoid parking outside our house if possible. Because of our son's disability.
But when I made this request again today after a car had been left outside our door for four days I was informed that because people pay road tax they can park where they like. ''That's how it works,' they said.
Yes. Indeed.
They said that because there is not an accessible sign painted outside our house they can continue to park there. Also true.
Not all disabilities are highly visible. They are not all the same.
Although we are entitled to apply for a blue badge, because my son has no mobility issues. we cannot avail of an accessible parking space outside our home. The irony is that he is in danger because he is very mobile.
A flight risk. With no sense of personal safety.
And he is very fast.
I look forward to the day when I do not have to constantly advocate for my son.
When outdated bylaws catch up. And when above all the world is a kinder place.
Where requests by parents of vulnerable children with additional needs are met with empathy, understanding, consideration and respect. – Yours, etc,
REBECCA KEHOE,
Dublin 3
Sir, – Brendan Murphy writes about careless parking. (Letters, June 10th). I live in a 1960s house, having purchased it in 1967.
My house, like most of the time, had a garage, into which you put your car at night time. There was room on the driveway for the car during the day.
However, nowadays, as my generation motor away to the great car park in the sky, our houses are being purchased by families who arrive with several large SUV type cars.
The first thing they do is to convert the garage into a room or office.
Thus, with their large cars they park one on the driveway and their other cars are parked on the road, one outside their own house, the others outside the houses of our neighbours.
While I understand that the roadway is open parking for everyone, this situation quickly escalates to obstructions for those driving past, resulting in zig-zag manoeuvring and braking hard as one tries to drive up or down the road.
A further complication is that if two cars park directly opposite each other the road is blocked.
I've seen it happen.
Believe me, it can only get worse. – Yours, etc,
TONY CORCORAN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Censorship and books
Sir, – Ray Burke's report (
An Irishman's Diary, June 10th)
of President Michael D Higgins's anecdote about being refused a copy of Bertrand Russell's book, Why I Am not a Christian, in the 1960s by the Galway librarian reminded me of my experience in the main library in Waterford when I requested a copy of Lewis Carrolls' Alice in Wonderland in the 1970s.
I got the book alright, but not before the librarian had closely questioned me as to why I wanted it.
I can only speculate that this was due to the fact that I was a male in his 20s at the time.
Surely this was a case of honi soit qui mal y pense?
There was rather a lot of that around books at the time. – Yours, etc,
Séamus MCKENNA,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Sir, Ray Burke's Irishman's Diary, on book censorship reminded me of a story my former French teacher at St Columb's College in Derry told.
He said he was stopped crossing the Border at the Irish Customs post in Aughnacloy when the customs officer spotted a copy of Émile Zola's Germinal sitting on the passenger seat.
'You might want to put that out of view,' said the official tactfully,
'Her books are not allowed here.' – Yours etc,
JOE MCLAUGHLIN.
Scotland.
Trump and the US electorate
Sir, – Lest we forget, because of our own focus on the damage he has already caused and the future potential damage to our economic and democratic lifestyle, US president Donald Trump has imposed and continues to inflict as much, if not more, trauma and prejudice on his own US citizens.
He had already allowed Elon Musk run riot as de facto head of the 'department of government efficiency,' (Doge).
As late as last Friday he asked the US Supreme Court to permit his administration to proceed with dismantling the department of education and now we see his plans to deploy some 700 US Marines (a military force trained to kill) on the streets of Los Angeles in addition to the already deployed National Guard troops.
It gives me no pleasure to say so, but hopefully the narcissistic and vindictive behaviour of this president will prompt future US electorates to be very careful of what it wishes for and in the process sustain the greater civilised world. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GANNON,
Kilkenny.
A picture paints 1,000 words
Sir, – The photograph of the rescue from rubble near Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday (Irish Times, June 10th) after the Israeli strike reduced me to tears.
Look at the little girl in the man's arms up close. Shame on all of us who allow this to happen.
Shame on so - called ''humanity'.
I try mostly not to look to stop the upset, the rage building more and more against all of those who allow this to happen.
Well done to all those who protest great and small.
Thank you for highlighting this awful atrocity. Keep doing it please.
I wonder will this little girl survive? – Yours, etc,
GERALDINE MCGINLEY,
Dunfanaghy,
Co Donegal.
Junior Cycle English test
Sir, – The Irish National Organisation of Teachers of English (INOTE) has noted with dismay the inclusion of a question exclusively on short stories on last week's Junior Cycle English paper.
Asking a question about 'how setting vitally influences character action' in short stories in a state exam is unwise and unfair.
Narrowing the focus to short stories exclusively will have disadvantaged a significant number of students, something we absolutely reject as useful in a state exam.
A much fairer question would have allowed students to discuss setting in a short story OR a novel.
Every year INOTE has felt disappointed with some questions asked of our students in the JC English exam. Despite plenty of reasonable and fair questions, too often we have noted questions that are either much too narrow in focus or much too ambitious in scope for students, questions that are known in teaching circles as 'Gotcha!' questions.
After a three-year journey in the classroom that values creativity, discussion and critical thinking, asking these types of questions is simply unfair on hardworking students desperate to showcase what they've learned.
We sometimes wonder whether the SEC is aware of what 15 year old English students are capable of in such a highly time-pressured exam.
We would urge the SEC to reduce the number of questions on the HL JC paper, embed more student choice and flexibility and also to be more realistic in their question design.
Our students deserve the chance to shine. It is the least they deserve. – Yours etc,
MIKEY MEALLY,
INOTE chairman
Co Laois.