Madam, - The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association sees fit to lecture the public health doctors currently on strike. The IHCA is an exclusive club. Over 80 per cent of its members are male, hold public hospital contracts, get paid for "on call" and "call out" and have significant incomes from private practice.
The public health doctors are over 80 per cent female. The vast majority are area medical officers on a pay scale of €48,000 to €56,000 a year - equivalent to middle-grade nursing management. A small number are public health specialists who seek parity with the hospital consultants' public contract.
Neither group has overtime or private practice.
The IHCA has opposed the appointment of any permanent doctors other than consultants in the acute hospital sector. However, it appears to be happy to have them work in community/public health medicine.
"Get back to work, girls." That's it, lads, let's keep 'em there. - Yours, etc.,
ROISIN HEALY,
Hospital Consultant (female),
Park Drive,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
Madam, - Is the announcement of bed closures and procedure cancellations at the major Dublin hospitals not further evidence of Ministerial incompetence and Departmental mismanagement? Where is the Opposition? How can Bertie Ahern seriously expect us to believe he has confidence in the Minister for Health?
Meanwhile the public health doctors struggle on as the Department and the Health Service Employers Agency pretend to want to negotiate, as they wait for public opinion to turn against the doctors. This must not be allowed to occur, as the underlying issues need to be addressed. There is no formal out-of-hours structure for public health issues in this so-called first-world country. The public health doctors have provided this essential service on a voluntary, unpaid and unrecognised basis up until now. This cannot continue and the public and the media need to keep the pressure on the Minister and the Government to act responsibly, and to stop hiding the facts from the electorate.
Otherwise the pretence will continue and we will keep papering over the cracks until it is too late and a serious infectious disease outbreak or incident of bio-terrorism episode occurs. Now is the time to act. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL FITZGERALD,
Elmwood,
Thurles,
Co Tipperary.