Letters

Hospital waiting lists

True picture is not clear

Tue Jun 07 2022 - 01:15

Sir, – Dr Frank Reilly raised a most pertinent question when he asked why the issue of sick patients waiting on average 12.8 hours for assessment in our emergency departments does not elicit the same response from our Government as that which we have seen to tackle the problem of passengers waiting four to six hours at Dublin Airport (Letters, June 2nd).

I suggest the answer lies in the fact that as almost 50 per cent of our population have private health insurance, many of those in this and previous governments, as well as the movers and shakers in our society, have never languished in a public hospital emergency department but had no way of circumventing the airport delays.

– Yours, etc,

DR REGGIE SPELMAN,

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Rosslare Strand,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – Regarding your report, “One-quarter of the State’s population on health waiting lists” (June 6th). Since 48 per cent of our population have private health insurance and are generally not on public waiting lists, the percentage of the relevant population waiting is far, far higher than 25 per cent. Undoubtedly the worst backlog in Europe.

Nor is this a Covid problem; an increase of 30 per cent due to the pandemic would not be such an issue if the starting backlog had not been an already unacceptable million.

Our public healthcare has failed due to decades of mismanagement at the political, departmental and HSE levels.

The home-grown Slaintécare panacea was never going to fix the problem, even if it could have been implemented.

So, it’s time to outsource to a European health service that is competent in providing quality healthcare, or at least mimic their formula for success.

Any western EU country will do.

– Yours, etc,

JOHN SCULLY,

Burlington Road,

Dublin 4.