Bonuses for some, cutbacks for others

AS THE latest episode in the hospital consultants’ contract saga plays out, it occurred to me that few of the people involved in these discussions are ever likely to be poor, marginalised or languishing on a waiting list for medical treatment.

Amusingly, in the same week that these marathon discussions resumed yet again, we were informed that many senior HSE managers will receive large bonuses and then, a little later, that the head of the HSE will receive an 80,000 bonus.

Given this surprising generosity with the taxpayers’ money for HSE staff, it would be almost churlish not to extend similar largesse to those with the rank of consultant.

Sadly, however, this generosity is taking place against the backdrop of financial mismanagement of the health services culminating in the recent ban on recruitment.

This will have regrettable consequences for those who rely on the public health services, especially the poor, the marginalised and those on waiting lists for medical treatment.

You can rest assured that it will have limited impact on the health and comfort of the HSE managers and hospital consultants.

Of course it is acceptable for the doctors’ unions and the HSE to represent their own interests and negotiate a good deal for themselves, but by this stage it really does look like Nero fiddling as Rome burns.

We should all remember that it is our tax money they are awarding themselves and we paid these taxes to provide healthcare for the public, not to further enrich already comfortable public servants and consultants.

It is time they settled their differences like adults and started to provide the service we pay for instead of negotiating endlessly while awarding themselves bonuses in the interim.

Would it be too much to ask that some of them examine their consciences?

Joseph Bergin

18 Caragh Green

Naas

Co Kildare