Madam, - Further to all the letters sympathising with the family of Susie Long, and the correspondence castigating Ireland's inequitable two-tier health system, it puzzles me why the equitable and high quality Nordic healthcare model is not being considered by Minister for Health Mary Harney nor mentioned in the media as a possibility for Ireland. The supported population sizes would be somewhat similar.
The Nordic healthcare model incorporates a nationwide network of polyclinics staffed by physicians and nurses, offering primary care services such as health counselling, basic examinations, local school health services, home care, dental work, and child and maternal care. If a health issue cannot be treated adequately at a polyclinic, patients are immediately referred to the nearest municipal hospital. This efficient escalation-based system ensures hospitals are not congested with non-emergency cases.
Irish GPs and hospital consultants would probably balk at the very notion of their entrenched highly profitable positions being threatened by such an efficient and equitable system. But that would be at the expense of the societal greater good.
- Yours, etc,
NIALL O'DONOGHUE, Vesilahti, Finland.