Sir, - The treatment of leukaemia and related diseases is complex and requires continuous input from nurses and doctors at the highest level. With modern management, which has been developed jointly by doctors and nurses over the past 20 years, many of these diseases are curable. Any diminution in the delivery of chemotherapy or the complex support measures required by these patients will inevitably result in less than optimal treatment being given and will undoubtedly influence the outcome of these potentially curable illnesses.
We urge the Government and the nurses to begin discussions immediately to settle this dispute. - Yours, etc., Prof Shaun McCann,
Consultant Haematologist, St James's Hospital, Dublin.
Also signed, on behalf of the Irish Haematology Association, by the following consultants: Prof Ernest Egan, University College Hospital, Galway; Dr Paul Cotter, University College Hospital, Cork; Dr Fred Jackson, Waterford GeneralHospital; Dr Paul Browne, St James's Hospital, Dublin; Dr Brian Otridge, Mater Hospital, Dublin; Dr Donald McCarthy, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin; Dr RORY O'Donnell, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin; Dr Michael Madden, Mercy Hospital, Cork.