Sir, - Senator Mary Henry's letter (August 15th) takes five paragraphs to make a relatively minor point. She goes on to say: "The hospital does not have the throughput nor mixture of cases essential for training purposes, nor sufficient consultant staff." Perhaps the senator is privy to information that we do not have but she seems to be saying that the population served by Monaghan General Hospital do not, nor will ever have, the range of illnesses, injuries or diseases to require the level of treatment suitable for training junior doctors, let alone providing an acceptable level of care for those who are in need of hospital attention.
Such a claim is nonsense and shows the level of compassion she has for some of those who voted to have her elected.
Over the last six weeks there have been few occasions when only 20 patients were being cared for in the hospital, perhaps the senator might take the trouble to verify her figures and not try to make cheap points by making statements (even conditional ones) which cannot be true.
Finally, whilst I appreciate her attempt at empathy, since she was evicted from two Dublin hospitals, it is vastly different to be evicted from a Dublin hospital when there are numerous other hospitals in the city, than to face eviction from one which serves as the general hospital for a county. - Yours, etc.,
The Rev IAN BERRY,
Monaghan