Madam, – It was with a mixture of outrage and near despair that I read Orla Tinsley’s fine, yet deeply depressing, account of her recent “sojourn” in St Vincent’s hospital (Opinion, June 25th). I have followed the plight of adult cystic fibrosis (CF) sufferers in this country ever since Ms Tinsley highlighted it exactly five years ago, at the height of our so-called Celtic Tiger.
It is a scandal that she and her fellow adult CF patients are still subjected to the indignity and mortal danger of sharing a ward with elderly, infection-prone, people five years after the Pollock report stressed the urgent need to provide single en-suite rooms in a dedicated unit. The failure to date to provide such a facility – due to be completed in 2010 – in St. Vincent’s hospital is a terrible indictment of the Minister for Health, her department, the HSE and sadly, by extension, brings shame on us all. – Yours, etc,