Patients and relatives hold Minister responsible

Patients and their relatives greeted the resignation of the chief executive with anger and anxiety. Anger at what they perceive as the victimisation of David McCutcheon when if anyone should be resigning, they say, it should be the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, for leaving the new Tallaght Hospital with an £8.5 million shortfall. And anxiety at the possibility that the chief executive's departure might pave the way for severe cutbacks in services.

"It's frightening and it is cruel what he is doing," says Elizabeth Pearson Evans from Glenageary of Mr Cowen. "It's bad enough to have a child seriously ill in hospital. You don't want to be worrying about cutbacks on top of that, or hearing that the hospital isn't getting the support it needs."

Like other parents whose children are receiving treatment at Tallaght - her five-year-old daughter, Isobel, has leukaemia - Ms Evans fears the National Children's Hospital may bear the brunt of any cutbacks.

The Minister has already been considering transferring the paediatric haematology and surgery units to Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin. Ms Evans says she is concerned recent events may have given that move a new impetus.

"The best thing about Tallaght is that the facilities are there to cater for someone from childhood, through adolescence, right up to adult stage. That relieves an awful amount of stress because moving can be very traumatic when you get used to a particular environment. To have to move now would be a terrible wrench."

Her concern is shared by the Tallaght Hospital Action Group, which has promised to fight any roll-back of services.

"People are appalled at what's happening. They're not going to stand idly by to see the hospital shrink bit by bit," says Richie O'Reilly, a spokesman for the group.

He said Dr McCutcheon was "very hard done by. He cared for the patients and the staff, as did the board. But the Minister gave him an impossible task. The budget for Tallaght was taken by adding up the allocation for the three old hospitals. But those hospitals were completely run down. They were spending nothing on them, using chewing gum and rubber bands to keep things together".

Not enough credit has been given to the hospital management, he says, for meeting its opening deadline with no major problems.

"If I wanted to nitpick I could do so," says Ms Evans. "I could say it took two weeks before the curtains were put up, I could say the coffee shop was slow to open. But there were bound to be problems. What was more important was that they moved without anyone getting sick, without missing any operation dates."

She says the hospital is a vast improvement on Harcourt Street. "If the X-ray machine shut down there you'd have to go to another hospital. Here you just join the queue for another one."

She says the children's section is also more comfortable with separate rooms for parents who have to stay overnight, and well-equipped playrooms with computers, a snooker table and pinball machine. There are four exercise bikes and a treadmill which young patients can use to help them recover, compared to just one exercise bike in Harcourt Street.

Among in-patients, the only major complaint is with the food. Some find it an improvement on the old hospitals, especially the Adelaide and Meath. But others say it is often cold or overcooked, having been prepared hours before being served.

"I was in as a patient myself for a week," says Sid Gannon, who delivers meals to the wards, "and I have to say the food could be a bit dodgy." Monthly surveys have since been carried out in the wards to see how meals can be improved. All food is now prepared a maximum of two hours in advance of being served, a move which has helped to reduce the number of complaints by 90 per cent.

For out-patients, the main problem is waiting times.

Some patients have complained waiting times have increased since the hospitals moved to Tallaght. "It took a quarter of an hour at the most for me to be seen at the Adelaide. Here it's between an hour-and-a-half and two," says Anne Dempsey from Kildare town.

Delays reached crisis proportions last week when the casualty department became flooded with patients who had contracted flu and other respiratory illnesses. Three people were forced to rest on trolleys for three days due to the shortage of beds. Others had to wait hours in crowded conditions before receiving treatment. According to the hospital, the number of patients coming through Accident & Emergency is 30 per cent greater than at the Meath, the only one of the three old hospitals to have had a casualty department.

All this means added pressure for hospital staff, who grow more demoralised by the day.

"Nursing staff are severely strained, doctors are already putting in a lot of overtime," said one senior member of the medical staff. "And then there are memos everywhere asking people to make savings. I just can't see how it's meant to be done."