The Government decision to locate a new national children's hospital at the Mater hospital in Dublin has been described as a "cart-before-the-horse" approach by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill.
The archbishop and a delegation from Tallaght hospital with a Protestant ethos attended a meeting last Wednesday with Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney, Minister for Children Brian Lenihan, and Health Service Executive chief executive Brendan Drumm,
Speaking to The Irish Times last night, Dr Neill said the Ministers and Dr Drumm "admitted the taskforce report [on locating the new children's hospital] had been a rushed job". He said also "it was very apparent that no real thought at all had been given to the issue of governance". The archbishop was commenting following remarks by Mr Lenihan on RTÉ Radio 1's Marian Finucane programme yesterday.
He said he had assured the archbishop there was no question of a particular ethical norm being applied at the new hospital, particularly in the context of a pluralist Ireland. "Doctors who practise there will have full clinical freedom," he said.
Last night Dr Neill said he was not satisfied with the outcome. There remained "a very particular concern" when it came to ethical guidelines and freedom for treatments, as well as for genetic research at the new hospital. On the governance issue, he said it had taken years to resolve the matter when it came to the amalgamation of the Adelaide, Meath and National Children's Hospital of Harcourt Street at Tallaght.
Accompanying Archbishop Neill at last week's meeting in Government Buildings were the chairman of Tallaght hospital Alan Gillis; board member and former archdeacon of Dublin, the Ven Gordon Linney; hospital chief executive Michael Lyons; and Prof Ian Graham, chairman of the board's paediatric review subcommittee.
Last October it emerged that the Mater hospital deferred trials of the cancer drug Tarceta as tests were deemed contrary to its Catholic ethos. It said a leaflet for patients involved stated female participants would have to agree to use birth control since the drug could affect an unborn child. It emerged the leaflet also advised abstinence from sex as a way of preventing pregnancy.
At the time, trials for the drug were under way at hospitals in Cork and Galway, as well as at Tallaght, Beaumont and St James's in Dublin.