Sir, – Dr Frank Reilly raised a most pertinent question when he asked why the issue of sick patients waiting on average 12.8 hours for assessment in our emergency departments does not elicit the same response from our Government as that which we have seen to tackle the problem of passengers waiting four to six hours at Dublin Airport airport (Letters, June 2nd).
I suggest the answer lies in the fact that as almost 50 per cent of our population have private health insurance, many of those in this and previous governments, as well as the movers and shakers in our society, have never languished in a public hospital emergency department but had no way of circumventing the airport delays. – Yours, etc,
Dr REGGIE SPELMAN,
Rosslare Strand,
Co Wexford.