Madam, - As members of the largest academic department of Public Health Medicine in Ireland we wish to publicly express support for our striking health service colleagues. We have decided unanimously to withdraw from any national advisory committees in the health area both as a gesture of solidarity and in order to highlight our concerns to the powers that be.
It is deeply regrettable that this industrial dispute involving public health practitioners employed in the health service has continued for over eight weeks. Part of the problem is the fact that the strike, no more than our action of withdrawal, does not have an immediate effect on the public at large. Settling the strike does not seem to be a priority in the eyes of the employers.
We believe, however, that a just settlement of this strike is a matter of urgency since its continuation will have serious implications for the health of our community. Here is the paradox that explains the lack of public concern. The essence of public health medicine is that it is at its most effective when no one knows it is there.
The actions of public health doctors in Ireland and worldwide have saved millions of lives and improved the quality of life of countless millions of others. The parents who did not have a baby with spina bifida because the mother took folic acid, the middle-aged man who did not have a heart attack because he adjusted his diet - these should be supporting the case of these striking doctors, but such people do not and can not recognise their debt. .
Infectious disease, which has dominated the media coverage of this strike, is only a small part of public health work.
Ireland is a very unhealthy country by European standards. Our health service is increasingly expensive and dysfunctional. There is a huge amount of preventable disease in our society and much of this ill-health can be linked to social inequalities.
The Government's Health Strategy, published two years ago stated that its first goal was "Better Health for Everyone". The promotion of health was to be intensified and health inequalities were to be reduced - an inter-disciplinary effort in which public health medicine has a key role.
What have we got instead? Those doctors whose job is the health of the population are on strike because their role is relatively unrewarded, a matter of parity of esteem as much as money.
When, as a society, are we going to make the connection and demand the political agenda for change? ¨- Yours, etc.,
Prof. CECILY KELLEHER, Prof. LESLIE DALY, Dr PATRICIA FITZPATRICK, Dr ANTHONY STAINES, Dr RONNIE MOORE, Dr MAIRIN BOLAND, Dr DOMINIQUE CROWLEY, Dr LOURDA GEOGHEGAN, Ms SUZANNE LYONS, Dept. of Public Health Medicine and Epidemiology, UCD, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2