Madam, - I am infuriated by statements made by the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Prof Brendan Drumm implying that hospital consultants go home at 5 pm and put their feet up for the rest of the day.
On Sunday May 7th as the consultant orthopaedic surgeon on-call, I attended at Sligo General Hospital at 5.30 am. During my time in the hospital I met two obstetricians, one emergency medicine consultant, one general surgeon, one consultant anaesthetist and one consultant radiologist - all within the hospital attending to emergencies. I was not in the medical wards but it is safe to assume that one or two physicians were also in the hospital at the time.
I do not believe that this level of out-of-hours consultant attendance is unique to Sligo. As I approach my final year in practice, I feel disenchanted, not because of the heavy workload which I undertake or the reasonable expectations of patients. What makes me angry is that no matter how hard hospital consultants try, the politicians will forever accuse them of being the cause of the problems in our hospital services. - Yours, etc,
J B HEALY, FRCSI,
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon,
Sligo General Hospital.