Madam, - Dr Roisin Healy is wrong (May 8th) in most of her remarks about the Irish Hospital Consultants Association.
The association did not lecture public health doctors currently on strike. It issued two press statements on the present dispute. The first, on April 23rd, called on "all parties involved" to take action to bring the strike to an end immediately.
That statement ended: "It is incumbent on the HSEA and the Department of Health to take whatever initiative is necessary to bring this strike to a conclusion."
The second, issued on April 28th, called on the Minister for Health and Children to make the first move to resolve it, in view of his unhelpful comments at the annual general meeting of the Irish Medical Organisation.
An objective reader will not detect any suggestion of lecturing public health doctors but will see that the association has consistently called on the management side in this dispute to make every effort to resolve it. The clear assumption is that the resolution must be to the reasonable satisfaction of the public health doctors.
Dr Healy is factually incorrect when she claims that the membership of this association is over 80 per cent male. In fact, 25 per cent of members are female. The membership reflects the gender ratio of consultants in hospital practice, a situation which, as Dr Healy will know, is outside the control of the IHCA.
Dr Healy is correct on one issue. The association has opposed the creation of any form of sub-consultant post in our public hospitals. This is to ensure that doctors with permanent appointments are not exploited in terms of salary and conditions by the same health service management which has ridden roughshod over the public health doctors for nine years. The experience of the sub-consultant grade in the United Kingdom is one of a dead-end job in which doctors are left frustrated and subjugated by their employing NHS trusts.
I assume Dr Healy would not wish that on any colleague, regardless of gender. - Yours, etc.,
Dr COLM QUIGLEY, President, DONAL DUFFY, Assistant Secretary General, Irish Hospital Consultants Association, Dundrum, Dublin 14.