Sir, – Unfortunately the waiting list figures released this week come too early for us to have politicians available to answer for their failures.
I have never seen conditions as bad as those that currently exist for patients and clinicians in my 20 years of clinical practice both here and abroad.
We need a task force with executive experience externally (like the troika) to draw up a plan that our politicians will agree to over the next five to 10 years to restructure our acute health service.
This is the challenge that faces us as a country, and it can be ignored no longer. – Yours, etc,
Dr MICHAEL O’MAHONY,
Consultant
Respiratory Physician,
Galway University Hospitals.
Sir, – So, 490,500 patients waiting for treatment or assessment in the public hospital system while Ministers get paid to talk about seats. – Yours, etc,
EVE PARNELL,
Dublin 8.