At the heart of healing: nursing.

CORRESPONDENCE 548 However, I note that you adopted statements from Jimmy Carter and Larry King as definitive comment regarding Israel's culpability. You also use extreme leftist group opinion in Israel to support your argument. Your report is unbalanced and one-sided, totally lacking factual information on what took place on the ground, and has nothing to do with the practice of medicine. You are clearly unaware of all the many serious cases of Arab children and adults from Gaza who receive First-World medical treatment (free) in Israeli hospitals. You are also unaware of the published facts regarding the so-called 'civilian' casualties in Gaza, which WOULD give a very different slant to your one-sided Israel-bashing exercise. I suggest you do more research and get your facts straight. I feel very strongly that you have stepped outside your bounds as a medical journal editor, and a written apology in the SAMJ would be appropriate. 1. Ncayiyana DJ. A jaw for a tooth – the human rights cost of the Gaza invasion. 1 is well researched, interesting and informative. However, Chapter 7 on nursing is an exception; it was not adequately researched, and the writers display a lack of knowledge of nursing, resulting in an unacceptably high incidence of errors, in turn casting doubt on the accuracy of the whole work. Most seriously, the commissioning of the 'new' hospital has been omitted from this chapter. Before commencement of the commissioning, and over the period 1981-1986, the 2 699 nurses were joined by other categories of staff for training in preparation for the work. All were trained in our section: Nursing Personnel Development and Organisation Development (NPD & OD), where they attended the Induction and Orientation (I & O) courses that we had designed, selecting courses relevant to their needs, to fit them for the detailed work of commissioning, and then working in, the new hospital. Staff in the Division of Nursing made a major contribution to the planning and commissioning of the new hospital. They bore great responsibility during the commissioning – competently, and with outstanding teamwork and dedication. Professor Anne Digby replies: I note the criticisms made by June du Preez of the chapter on nursing in At the Heart of Healing: Groote Schuur Hospital 1938-2008. I will confine myself to what June du Preez states is the most serious omission in the chapter – the nurses' role in commissioning the hospital. On …