Madam, - In the article by Minister for Health Mary Harney (May 4th) she indicates that a patient with insurance is subsidised by 40 per cent by the State. Surely the opposite is the truth. Patients with private health insurance subsidise the public hospitals 60 per cent.
When patients are acutely unwell, they go to public hospitals, not private hospitals, regardless of their insurance status.
If patients with health insurance did not pay their premiums, the State would simply have to pay 60 per cent more for them in public hospitals.
Who is subsidising whom? - Yours, etc,
PETER BYRNE,
Greenfield Road,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - On Saturday April 22nd, 2006 the Minister for Health said that "in some places, such as in north Co Dublin, there isn't a GP service out of hours and at weekends". This was in the context of a speech in which she seemed to blame GPs for the A&E crisis.
I am a GP in north Co Dublin and can assure the Tánaiste that there is and always has been a GP out of hours and weekend service here.
This comprises a local roster of the GPs from Skerries, Lusk, Rush, Naul and Balbriggan. There is always a GP on call and available for urgent problems.
This roster operates 365 days a year and allows us to provide 24 hours a day cover for our patients. The NEDOC (GP co-operative) also provides out of hours and weekend cover to Balbriggan and the surrounding area.
While the Minister was making these comments my partner in practice was starting an uninterrupted 59-hour shift. He is also understandably aggrieved by her comments.
I attempted to contact the Tánaiste's office and her party regarding this but as of today have only received confirmation that my emails were received and read.
I am extremely disappointed that the person in charge of the health service in our country made such blatantly incorrect comments. If she knew this comment to be incorrect then I cannot even guess why she made it. If, however she thought it wascorrect, then is she being advised by people who do not know the facts about the health service, or else is she simply not on top of her brief?
The position of Minister of Health is a difficult and complex role. It is even more difficult when the person in charge cannot get their facts straight.
I call on the Tánaiste to clarify her comments. If she was quoted accurately then she should withdraw them immediately.
There was a lot of goodwill from doctors and nurses towards Ms Harney when she took up her position in the department of health.
Due to her repeated attacks and misinformation she has made sure none remains. - Yours, etc,
Dr CONOR McGRANE,
The Bracken Clinic,
12a Dublin Street
Balbriggan
Co Dublin.
Madam, - Mary Harney's attempt, (May 5th) for the umpteenth time, to hoodwink us all into believing that what she is about is something other than beginning the process of privatising the health service should be taken with the same pinch of salt as Bertie's claim that he is a socialist.
A public hospital bed's only function is to assist in the treatment of the ill and is accessible to all based only on clinical need.
The private bed, on the other hand, will have as its primary function the making of money for investors and therefore will be on offer only to those that can afford the charges, which of course will exclude many.
Inequality is being woven into the fabric of our society.
And the truly sickening aspect of what Ms Harney is doing is that she is using the money of taxpayers who will never be able to access these private beds, to provide them for one section of the community.
Can the electorate now have a clear statement from all those that are about to offer themselves as alternative government, that if elected to office, they will not only cease using public money to finance private medicine but will go further and seek to have money handed over already recovered for the taxpayer?
The people of Ireland never gave this Government a mandate to misuse public funds in the manner which it is now doing. - Yours, etc,
JIM O'SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond,
Sligo.