Madam, - The Taoiseach's criticism of health service staff is extremely unhelpful (The Irish Times, October 11th).
Insofar as it may refer to hospital consultants, it is in conflict with the views expressed by Minister for Health Mary Harney in the Dáil recently. In response to a question on September 29th she said: "We get in excess of what we pay for from many doctors who work beyond the 11 sessions, or 33 hours a week".
Prof Brendan Drumm, chief executive of the HSE, in his presentation to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, at which Ms Harney was also present, stated: "We need to accept that the workload carried by consultants at this point will not be acceptable to young doctors going forward. We therefore need to develop structures with more flexibility to allow consultants in the future to experience a more even work/life balance."
The Taoiseach will be well aware that almost 300,000 patients were admitted to our acute hospitals during the first six months of this year. Approximately 72 per cent of these admissions were emergencies.
Is he suggesting that people who get heart attacks or who are involved in road traffic accidents after lunchtime on Friday are not appropriately managed in hospitals because senior medical staff and others work less than a five-day week? What are his views on the 600,000 patients who attended A&E units during the first half of this year? The public must be aware that emergency work in hospitals is delivered round the clock every day of the week.
I regard the Taoiseach's comments as being totally inaccurate and little more than part of a softening-up process before the resumption of contract negotiations with consultants in a matter of weeks.
Were I to be equally malicious, I could refer to the timetable of the Dáil chamber, which opens after lunch on a Tuesday and closes down before lunch on a Thursday. - Yours, etc,
FINBARR FITZPATRICK, Secretary General, Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, Dundrum Office Park, Dublin 14.
Madam, - Having blundered his way through the past fortnight, would the Taoiseach not have been better advised, for this week at least, to stay out of the complexities of the health service and its many interest groups this week?
The challenges of healthcare provision in the Ireland of the 21st century have been debated on many occasions and its many difficulties are well rehearsed in your paper and other media. More is needed.
One of the former Ministers for Health has famously likened the health area to a country renowned for its land mines. The Taoiseach's comments suggests that he has chosen to go (metaphorically) backwards with his eyes closed.
It is up to better placed commentators than me and to the many staff associations and advocacy groups to voice their concerns and engage in a constructive debate on the reorganisation of the health system, with the patient as the main focus. Many patient groups have eloquently voiced their demands for a better service. The staff associations are slowly coming to engage in real debate to deliver it. Even the Government has realized things are not right.
I don't know any healthcare worker, from the mythical "administrator" to the most senior health professional, who believes that the way through that debate is to engage in lazy stereotyping, glib comment and ill-informed remarks.
It's a pity no one advised the Taoiseach. - Is mise,
MARTIN BRIDGEMAN, Glendine Heights, Kilkenny.