Health service must not be held to ransom by powerful, wealthy clique

IT’S increasingly difficult not to see hospital consultants as arrogant and greedy professionals with a stranglehold on the health service and a willingness to hold hostage the most vulnerable members of our community — those in need of hospital care.

If press reports are to be believed, the new public-only contract proposed by the HSE will carry a salary of €200,000 + per annum, while junior hospital doctors are currently earning up to €100,000 per annum in overtime alone.

The Government routinely defends its performance on health by highlighting the additional billions spent over the past decade. It’s now clear to the ordinary taxpayer that the main result of this largesse is to make budding millionaires of far too many medical practitioners.