Sir, - I am a consultant endocrinologist at Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin where, as a singlehanded appointee, I can have responsibility for up to 350 patients with diabetes at any given time. My normal working day begins at 8 a.m. and I am lucky if I leave the hospital at 6 p.m. any evening. I am regularly telephoned out of hours and at weekends regarding patient management and, when on-call, I attend as required at the hospital late into the night and at weekends. The service I provide is no different to that of the rest of my colleagues based in Our Lady's Hospital.
Yet, despite out best efforts, we see sick children with life-threatening illnesses on long waitinglists for cardiac surgery. We have to try to maintain services despite severe shortages of, for example, intensive care and theatre nurses. We know only too well that our best is not always enough.
There are times when consultants just get tired of being the whipping boys for all of the shortcomings in our hospital services. Maev-Ann Wren identified many of the problems such as underfunding and shortages of beds and staff, but placing all of the blame on consultants is illogical.
Since 1993 over 100,000 public patients have been treated under various waiting-list initiatives. On every occasion consultants have co-operated without any question of added remuneration. Every year, thousands of elective admissions are cancelled, due to a lack of bed capacity and theatre time. These decisions are not taken by consultants. Indeed, our opposition to these cuts is always ignored. On average, 70 per cent of all hospital admissions are emergencies. What a pity that the Department of Health and successive Ministers for Health have not address the shortcomings in our health services with the same sense of urgency that we have to apply every day when treating our patients.
Rather than quoting nameless, faceless administrators, Ms Wren would have done better had she spoken to more consultants and others who have to contend with the consequences of empty political promises and detached and frequently inept administration. We witness the trauma of patients and their next of kin and we feel frustrated at not having the resources to deal with their health problems as they deserve. Articles such as those by Ms Wren further delay improvements by diverting attention away from those whose responsibility it is to plan and administer our health services. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Colm Costigan, President, Irish Hospital Consultants Association, Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin 12.