Madam, - Christopher Pidgeon's letter of September 30th was most patronising about hospitals in the West.
Far from being small, understaffed and ill-equipped, University College Hospital, Galway has 568 beds, over 80 consultants and a medical school. A major capital development programme is in progress bringing cardiac surgery and radiotherapy to Galway.
A neurosurgery department is needed in the West, and the necessary infrastructure is largely in place to support such a development. Our population of 940,000 is too far away from the existing centres. Patients, both adults and children and their families, should not be made to travel to Dublin or Cork.
Helicopters are a glib solution. They are Dublin-based, potentially dangerous and expensive, and most models are limited to daylight hours and by weather conditions. Beaumont Hospital does not even have a helipad.
International opinion recommends that no patient should be more than two hours by surface transport from the nearest neurosurgical unit.
The West of Ireland urgently needs one. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN MORAN, Consultant Neurologist, St Mary's Road, Galway.