Sir, – There seems to be an implicit assumption in recent news and letters that all our doctors should be Irish (“Health chief admits ‘failure’ to deal with exit of graduate medics from Ireland”, News, September 29th).
Health services all over the world welcome foreign doctors, including our own, but foreign doctors who come to Ireland enter a two-tier system in which their training and career prospects are very limited. Many foreign doctors come here because of the relatively attractive pay rates but only those who are prepared to accept the poor working conditions and limited career development will stay. This has potential implications for the calibre of doctors we can hope to attract to work in our health system.
We are currently very reliant on foreign doctors so perhaps we should treat them as other countries treat ours, if only out of self-interest. – Yours, etc,
CORMAC O’CARROLL,
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