Madam, - Kevin Myers misses the point when he comments on the recently published study of women entering general practice in Ireland (An Irishman's Diary, May 21st). His concern should not be one of too many females getting into medical school but rather why so few male medical students, having qualified, do not opt to enter general practice. There is a difference.
Perhaps there is an incorrect perception of lower skills compared with our consultant colleagues - a view obviously held by Mr Myers himself in his reference to the job being "90 per cent mucus".
A glance at our nursing colleagues should show that attracting and retaining highly trained professionals in the health service is not a problem of gender, but of job satisfaction. Being overworked with inadequate resources has caused high attrition rates, as he must know. It might surprise Mr Myers to know that there has been pressure to change the work practices of GPs for some time and that this has come mainly from male doctors. Most doctors recognise that "open all hours" unsupported practice is unrealistic and can be unsafe for patients. - Yours, etc.,
Dr SIOBHAN GRAHAM,
Kilmacud Medical Centre,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin
Madam - Kevin Myers's analysis of female GPs might be more complete had he included some details on how men wish to pursue general practice. For all we know, they too have no wish to work unsociable hours in a single rural practice. Perhaps a gender-balanced survey might reveal that men eschew the meniality and tedium of general practice for the more lucrative consultant positions so clearly dominated by their sex.
It reminds one of those frequently published surveys which announce that career women long to cut their long office hours and spend more time at home with their children. It never occurs to anyone to ask men if they feel the same way. - Yours, etc.,
SARAH CAREY,
Newcastle,
Enfield,
Co Meath.
Madam, - I concur with Kevin Myers's sentiments. I graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in 2002. Three of my male colleagues applied for the GP scheme, but none of them was accepted. At a GP interview, one colleague was asked to introduce himself while holding a teddy bear.
The Irish College of General Practioners has a duty to explain how it is going to manage the manpower crisis in general practice in the next five years. Otherwise the Department of Health should supervene as a duty of care to the general public. - Yours, etc.,
Dr MUIRIS BUCKLEY,
Dublin 24.