Madam, - When is Pat O'Byrne of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (June 9th) going to stop trying to defend the indefensible? The NTPF is a quango set up to deflect criticism from the Government over waiting-lists while at the same time sticking rigidly to the ideology of dismantling as far as possible public services.
Of course treating patients via the NTPF must cost more simply to cover the administration overheads. Do Mr O'Byrne and his staff work for nothing in accommodation donated by some philanthropist?
The most worrying aspect of NTPF is its capacity to undermine the health service and it seems that we are sleepwalking into a social order based only on "rugged individualism". We are in desperate need of some open honest debate about what is Government policy on health and where that policy is taking us. - Yours, etc, JIM O'SULLIVAN, Rathedmond, Sligo.