Dr Patricia ‘Pat’ Alston studied medicine at University College Dublin, graduating in 1941. Having decided on a career in paediatrics she took a position at St Ultan’s Hospital where she became a disciple of Dr Dorothy Stopford Price. Dr Alston was responsible for leading out on the introduction of BCG vaccination at St Ultan’s under Dr Price’s guidance.
A colleague said of them,
“The person that Dorothy relied on was Patricia Alston. She was devoted to Dorothy. If Dorothy said stand on your head, she would have done it. She was a very nice person; she died quite young. She did all of the work in the maternity hospitals… went in and vaccinated the newborn. She was years younger than Dorothy and was her junior. She followed Dorothy’s instructions, but she was good at her job.”
The two women combined their considerable energies to promoting the value of the BCG vaccine and lobbied for its countrywide introduction. In 1949 the Minister for Health, Dr Noel Browne, established the National BCG Committee with Drs Alston and Price as founding members. For the next 28 years Pat trained most of the public health medical personnel in Ireland in the application and technique of BCG vaccination, as well as doctors from developing countries who sent to Ireland on WHO training fellowship.
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| Dr Pat Alston carrying out a BCG Vaccination, taken from a BCG publicity flyer |
Aside from her BCG vaccination work, Pat held posts at St Patrick’s Infant Hospital, St Joseph’s Children’s Hospital and Temple Street. In an obituary a colleague said of her,
“nobody could have been more temperamentally suited to a career in paediatrics. In short, Pat had a way with children – her own inimitable calming way. Intuitively, the responded to her gentleness and infinite patience and she was happiest in their company.” He concluded, “she was a charming colleague, loyal, dedicated and self-effacing to a fault.”
Pat Alston received Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1960. In the letter of nomination for Fellowship she was described as “a medical woman of considerable attainments and a person of integrity.”
Dr Pat Alston died suddenly at her home on 25 July 1977.
Prof Patricia Fitzpatrick
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| Prof Patricia Fitzpatrick |
Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick qualified in medicine from UCD and worked in clinical medicine before completing a Masters in Public Health and undertaking Higher Specialist Training in Public Health Medicine. On completion of specialist training she was appointed to the Department of Public Health Medicine and Epidemiology, UCD. Prof Fitzpatrick is former a Dean (2008-2011) and current board member of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine.
Prof Fitzpatrick is currently Professor of Epidemiology and Biomedical Statistics at University College Dublin and Subject Head for Public Health. She is a Consultant Epidemiologist and Director of Evaluation of the National Screening Service and is also a Consultant in Preventative Medicine at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin.
She is a Member of the Guidelines Development Group of the EU Joint Research Council European Council Initiative on Breast Cancer which works on developing the new guidelines for breast cancer screening.
She is a Board Member of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety and currently holds research grants from the HRB, the Irish Cancer Society and UCD. In addition, Prof Fitzpatrick is Chair of the Steering Committee for Healthy UCD and in 2018 was awarded Irish Heart Foundation active@work Gold award.
In 2019 Prof Fitzpatrick developed the RCPI online module on screening, working with RCPI and LogicEarth to create this popular and vital course.