Madam, - Mary Raftery's column (August 9th) regarding the establishment of Dublin Academic Health Care makes a number of misleading assertions regarding the governance of the new entity and its consequences for the ethos and autonomy of the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science.
UCD is, by law, a non-denominational institution, and the Universities Act, 1997, specifically stipulates that the university shall "have the right and responsibility to preserve and promote the traditional principles of academic freedom in the conduct of its internal and external affairs, and be entitled to regulate its affairs in accordance with its independent ethos and traditions".
It is simply not possible under the law that the educational and research activities of the university could be constrained, as suggested by Ms Raftery, by a single denominational ethos.
The governance model being developed for Dublin Academic Health Care explicitly recognises this reality.
The foundation of Dublin Academic Health Care builds on decades of partnership between the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, St Vincent's Healthcare Group and University College Dublin, who together have cared for patients, educated generations of health professionals, and conducted groundbreaking research.
The collaborative relationship between universities and these teaching hospitals has, in the past, grown and developed in an ad-hoc fashion. The academic medical centre model serves to formalise these partnerships in a way that adds value to the operation of the individual institutions.
There is clear international evidence that, by harnessing the combined expertise of universities and hospitals in this manner, and through co-ordinated planning and operations, academic medical centres deliver better patient care, better education and better research.
This important new development is a natural evolution of a long-standing partnership. - Yours, etc,
Dr PHILIP NOLAN,
Deputy President and Vice-President for Academic Affairs,
University College Dublin,
Belfield,
Dublin 4.