Sir, – Your Editorial on junior doctors (July 11th) is timely but yet again the ire of The Irish Times is misdirected. You state that too many junior doctors are leaving. You reason that they are most likely leaving due to pay cuts and poor working conditions. You then, astonishingly, conclude that the pay of consultants should be reduced, reinforcing the very causes you identified!
Besides being profoundly illogical, the default position of The Irish Times, amongst others, in blaming the doctors for the difficulties in the health system is a key reason why junior doctors are leaving this country in droves. The use of doctors as a punching-bag for the failures of our health system does us all a disservice.
The Irish Times should demand improvements to the incredibly wasteful management and administration of the health services by the HSE instead of falling back on the lazy response of blaming consultant pay. If we had a health system that was well administered and media which valued our doctors instead of vilifying them then junior doctors might be more likely to stay. – Yours, etc,