Sir, - Can we not do better than this? Somehow, the spectacle of a group representing the Department of Health, health boards and the Medical Council going off to India and Pakistan to recruit non-consultant hospital doctors sums up the paralysis of proper planning of medical manpower in Ireland.
We produce enough medical graduates for all our needs, yet seem content, through lack of proper manpower-integrated training programmes, to let these frustrated young professionals staff health services abroad. The UK health service, in particular, must be delighted with the Irish taxpayer's contribution.
As the Minister himself stated, there is a global shortage of medical graduates, yet we seem content to lose this valuable and expensively trained resource.
The Department of Health should not taking doctors from already deprived countries, but concentrating on its primary obligation of planning the effective use of Irish resources. - Yours, etc.,
John M. Owens, Consultant Psychiatrist, Monaghan.