Sir, – Seán Boyle (August 9th) suggests that Minister for Health, James Reilly bring in salaried GPs from abroad to staff inner city areas to break some sort of alleged “medical monopoly”. His emotive language excoriates GPs for expecting to be paid for seeing more patients.
As senior research fellow in the prestigious London School of Economics, his letter really should make one sit up and think about its contents. However, the points he makes are quite odd. Why does he suggest that people in the inner city should be subjected to a different quality of doctor than, say, somebody in the suburbs?
Does leafy Dún Laoghaire not deserve foreign doctors whose native language is not English, while Dorset Street does? Would salaried GP employees, with their generous public sector pension and leave entitlements, and a need for permanent State-provided office space really be preferable to independent GP contractors who compete against each other out of self-provided accommodation?
Finally, how does Mr Boyle reconcile the fact that employees paid regardless of numbers of patients seen are less productive than employees on a commission-type basis. – Yours, etc,
Dr MAIT O FAOLAIN,
Beechwood Court,
Stillorgan, Co Dublin.