Madam, - On Wednesday of last week the Government launched the National Women's Strategy 2007-2016, one of the key aims of which is "to encourage more women to contribute more frequently at the highest levels in Irish life" (Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, announcing the strategy).
The following morning 68 consultant posts were advertised at the behest of our first female Minister for Health.
Key elements of the contract advertised for these posts include being rostered for 39 hours of a seven-day, 7am to 10pm working week. Furthermore, there is provision within the contract for working well beyond 39 hours a week and additional to the on-call commitment that all consultants make as part of their standard working week.
International evidence has shown that the single biggest factor in preventing women from achieving the highest level in their chosen careers is the issue of childcare and family life. Training to become a consultant takes up the key child-bearing years of a woman's life and work as a consultant corresponds with the remaining child-bearing and child-rearing years. Women now account for the majority of Irish graduates from medical school and, in line with this, an increasing proportion of consultant appointees in recent years have been women.
A contract such as the one advertised will powerfully deter women from achieving or even contemplating the highest positions in the profession.
By all means let the Minister introduce a public-only contract; the medical organisations are committed to this. By all means, let her extend the working day from 7.30am to 7.30pm Monday to Friday and continue our commitment to emergency work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But let her pause for very serious thought before she presses ahead with filling consultants' posts on a contract which is so blatantly anti-family and which will discourage many women from pursuing medical careers to consultant level. This contract flies directly in the face of the National Women's Strategy of helping women to achieve the highest positions in Irish life.
Does our first female Minister for Health really want to leave as her legacy this very retrograde step for mná na hÉireann? - Yours, etc,
Dr SIOBHÁN NÍ BHRIAIN, Department of Psychiatry, Adelaide and Meath National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, Dublin 24.
Madam, - I refer to a number of recent letters on the appointment of new consultants. An impression has been given in the correspondence that the qualifications and training necessary for consultants' appointments are set by industrial relations processes, contract negotiations or by politicians.
The Medical Council, which acts in the public interest, is the body which sets the standards and registers those with the appropriate educational qualifications, experience and training. The council is advised in these matters by the recognised postgraduate training bodies.
Any suggestion that the Medical Council registers doctors with inadequate training or qualifications, or that registration is decided by industrial relations processes, contract negotiations or politicians is incorrect.
It is irrational for some doctors to be making such suggestions when they should know they are not true. It is also damaging to their own profession and to the public's confidence in that profession. - Yours, etc,
JOHN LAMONT, Registrar, Medical Council, Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6.
Madam, - It is extraordinary that the 68 consultant posts advertised this past week by the Health Service Executive refer to a contract (type B) which allows for private practice in "co-located private hospitals on public hospital campuses" - buildings for which contracts and tendering agreements have not been signed or agreed.
Is there an election on the horizon? - Yours, etc,
Dr NORMAN DELANTY, Consultant Neurologist, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9.