Sláintecare and private health insurance

Sir, – Dr Michael Harty TD (January 3rd) and others have expressed concerns about the failure of the current Government to take action to implement Sláintecare and mention that the cost of not doing so will be more expensive than the cost of implementing the changes required and he is at a loss to understand the delay by the Minister for Health Simon Harris.

The next time Dr Harty is in Leinster House or at a meeting with public-sector colleagues, I would ask him to just quickly do a check to see how many of the people sitting around the table have private healthcare and then check how many of them have experience of requiring treatment on the public health system from start to finish.

In all sections of failing Irish policy, be it healthcare, housing or any other issue, the problem is that the people who can making the decisions to implement a policy are never the same people who are most affected by the failure to implement proper policy in the first place. So no wonder they can’t compare their experience of healthcare in Ireland with the person who has to spend hours battling to get an appointment and then go through months of delays awaiting procedures to be completed.– Yours, etc,

DESMOND FitzGERALD,

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Canary Wharf,

London.