Sir, - It takes about three months to have a simple X-ray in Beaumont Hospital to discover if you have cancer or not. During this protracted delay in basic diagnosis the cancer, if present, will not have ceased to ravage your body, but will have continued its course unabated.
Such delays can be fatal. Who cares?
No one cares, apart from those who suffer from cancer and their families. The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, is concerned with pruning the health services as much as possible in order to save money. Wards are closed, hospital staff let go and people die - unnecessarily. This situation is not new, lest anyone delude themselves. It has existed for at least five years in my own personal experience. Now however, when the country is enjoying an unprecedented economic boom, nothing has changed in the medical field. The queues in public hospitals remain intolerable.
If you are as healthy as the proverbial trout you can afford to disregard this letter and delude yourself that this is not your problem. Likewise, if you have paid into a private health scheme you also can read some other letter secure in the knowledge that this doesn't concern you.
Unfortunately, good health is transitory and tomorrow is another day. Similarly, for those in VHI let me say that you are paying twice for the same service. In no other area, apart from Irish medicine, would such a situation be either tolerable or acceptable. Taxation, one of the highest in Europe, takes care of public health and does so badly. So you pay on the double for an inferior product.
The French health system does not discriminate between those who can afford to pay outrageous hospital bills and those who can't. The same treatment is available to all, irrespective of income. Is there any reason why such a system could not apply to this country, I ask myself? There is none, whatsoever, apart from the matter of vested interests of consultants and others who are, at present, making a good living out of exorbitant private fees.
Meanwhile, the queues are growing longer at Beaumont, the Mater and throughout the country. Mr Cowen is counting his savings and the situation is getting worse. - Yours, etc., Peter Martin,
Castle Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin.