Sir, – Brian O’Brien (Letters, December 26th) says he is heartened by the idealism and enthusiasm of our young doctors as expressed by Dr Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne (“Public-only consultant contracts a step closer to universal healthcare”, Opinion & Analysis, December 17th) so why try to puncture it?
Brian O’ Brien says he is writing as a doctor with decades of experience.
As such, he represents the status quo, where half our population (without private medical insurance) has second-class access to healthcare, a situation which is almost unique among developed countries, certainly in Europe.
Under the proposed public only consultant contract, doctors are being offered a package worth up to €300,000 to focus on public patients and this new contract does not in fact preclude private work as long as doctors treat their patients on their own time in private hospitals (and even this will be phased in). Current contracts effectively allow consultants to treat private patients on HSE time, using HSE equipment, in HSE hospitals.
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The proposed new consultant contract is a compromise, arrived at following protracted and difficult negotiations.
The proposed new consultant contract is a critical first step in fixing our healthcare system and to most disinterested observers it looks like a pretty good deal for doctors.
I would like to hear more from our idealistic young doctors like Dr Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne! – Yours, etc,
CORMAC O’CARROLL,
Salzburg,
Austria.
Sir, – Returning to Brian O’Brien’s analogy of the bus driver, how many bus drivers are allocated 20 per cent of the seats on the bus for their personal gain, while driving for their employers?
In no other branch of the public sector are public facilities allocated for personal gain.
Private health work has a place in the Irish healthcare system, but not in public facilities. – Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN,
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.