Re: S Ratnapalan, MS Rayar, M Crawley. Educational services for hospitalized children. Paediatr Child Health 2009;14(7):433-6

To the Editor: I would like to bring to the attention of the editorial board and readers of Paediatrics & Child Health, the article intitled “Educational services for hospitalized children”, published in a past issue of Paediatrics & Child Health. Although the authors of this article were well intentioned, and their subject of query valuable, their methodology seemed to lack depth, their Web site review and telephone calls seemed incomplete, and their review of Quebec paediatric hospitals contained a few notable inaccuracies. Let me quote parts of the article: “The Montreal Children's Hospital and the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine are under the McGill University Health Centre umbrella...” (page 433, last paragraph). “There are no other children's hospitals in the province of Quebec” (other than the Montreal Children's Hospital, the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine, and the Shriners Hospital for Children – page 436, first paragraph). The Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine is one of the largest children's hospitals in Canada, and its clinical, academic and research achievements are wellknown throughout North America, Europe and many other countries. To mistake its academic affiliation (it is affiliated with the University of Montreal) denotes a lack of rigueur in the authors' fact-checking process. Furthermore, the authors write that there are no other children's hospitals in the province, while there are two other major children's hospitals. The Centre mère-enfant du Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec (CHUQ), in Quebec City, affiliated with the Université Laval, boasts 51 neonatal intensive care unit beds, eight paediatric intensive care unit beds and 81 paediatric beds; the teaching staff comprises approximately 50 paediatricians, specialists and subspecialists. The Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS), affiliated with the Université de Sherbrooke, has approximately 25 neonatal intensive care unit beds, six paediatric intensive care unit beds and 40 paediatric beds, and has a teaching staff of approximately 40. Both of these centres offer educational services to their patients via the help of one bilingual teacher at each centre, who works full time in the case of the CHUQ, and three days per week in that of the CHUS. The services are offered to children who are hospitalized for more than three days, and for grade levels from the first year of primary school to the last year of secondary school. The teachers are provided by the respective local school boards. Please note that there are also rehabilitation or psychiatric facilities that have been overlooked. As a board representative from Quebec, let me express to the authors my regrets that their research process was not more thorough. The Caring for Kids Web site provides functioning links to the CHUQ, CHUS and Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine Web sites, with contact information for queries, and should members experience much difficulty with the French language, Canadian Paediatric Society board representatives can provide easy assistance. The information above was a 10 min phone call away, and was not at all “difficult” to obtain.

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