Rotunda must deliver more than a female master

THE disappointment of Drs Maeve Eogan and Jennifer Donnelly at being passed over for Master of the Rotunda is understandable, as is feminist dismay at the role being handed to Professor Seán Daly, who has already experienced that lofty position at the Coombe.

Yet, for all the perceived unfairness of the appointment, it must be said there are far greater problems facing Dublin’s oldest maternity hospital than the frustrated ambitions of two highly paid and respected female physicians.

The hospital is Dickensian, comprising a warren of corridors, ramps and prefabs which makes it impossible to get from A to B without asking for directions.

The Rotunda also profits from the insecurities of mothers-to-be by offering those who can afford it a private or semi-private service while running a public service for everybody else.

Even more iniquitously the twotiered service extends to gynaecology, meaning that unless a woman with, for example, symptoms of uterine cancer has €250 to spend on a private consultant, she must wait up to two years for a public appointment.

Unlike its counterparts in the capital, who have had female Masters, the Rotunda has never had a woman in the top job.

It may be time for a woman to be appointed Master of the Rotunda, but patient interest dictates otherwise. It says that the candidate who gets the nod should have a realistic plan to upgrade the hospital building and the drive to demolish the Rotunda Private – the thriving operation that delivers great prosperity to hospital consultants by ensuring that the inequitable practice of delivering healthcare on the basis of wealth rather than need continues.