Sir, – I read with interest the remarks attributed to Benedict Clements of the IMF and your Editorial (March 25th) regarding the cost of the health service.
I am not sure what qualifications Mr Clements has in order to judge the Irish health service. If the health service is so costly because of the salaries of its employees, then why are so many doctors leaving the country after internship? The answer is that they receive better remuneration and training in other jurisdictions.
As professor of academic medicine in Trinity College, I, and my colleagues from the other public medical schools worked very hard in conjunction with the Higher Education Authority to implement the Fottrell report to increase the number of Irish medical students. Mr Clements is now calling for a reversal of this effort. Presumably he would like us to return to the “old days” when the health service relied on doctors who had not received their education in Irish medical schools. For Mr Clements’s information, the Fianna Fáil government unilaterally drew a red line through consultants’ contracts and this Government continues to reduce salaries, even though the remuneration of senior bankers cannot be touched! – Yours, etc,
SHAUN MCCANN,
Professor Emeritus of
Haematology and
Academic Medicine,
St James’s Hospital and
Trinity College Dublin.