Madam, - I have read with interest recent letters on the subject of hospital "co-location". Much of the debate surrounding this issue has been ideological, with multiple references to "two-tier" medicine and the apparent evils of the private sector.
Many of your correspondents appear to have missed one fundamental point. In my opinion, our public health system is governed by a culture of administrative incompetence that specialises in squandering taxpayers' money.
Private sector hospitals, by contrast, cannot afford to indulge vast numbers of inept bureaucrats, as they would go bankrupt in the morning. They are thus far more likely to deliver the beds that our health service so badly needs.
Unfortunately, those who so passionately rail against private sector medicine are typically the same people who will defend the "job-for-life" protection that shields incompetent HSE administrators from responsibility.
I believe that Mary Harney deserves much criticism for her performance as Minister for Health. She has pandered to bungling bureaucrats and capitulated to the unions that defend them. She has done her utmost to destroy the independence of the medical profession and has thus undermined thousands of dedicated health professionals. She is responsible for our overcrowded A&E departments, our cancer care shambles and the imminent collapse of Irish general practice.
However, on the issue of hospital co-location, I believe the Minister deserves our support. There can be no doubt we have a critical shortage of acute hospital beds in this country. Any initiative that addresses this problem should be welcomed. - Yours, etc,
Dr RUAIRI HANLEY, Francis Street, Drogheda, Co Louth.