Six-figure registrars work three-figure hours

I REFER to your editorial (June 15) about overtime payments to hospital registrars. In the interest of fairness, it must be emphasised that those medics receiving more than €100k per annum (20 out of 4,800 NCHDs) are working in excess of 100 hours a week.

To employ three similarly trained doctors to work 39-hour weeks would be considerably more expensive to the taxpayer.

In addition, the willingness of Irish doctors to work fewer hours for less pay and greater quality of life is attested to by the astronomical rate of emigration by young doctors to Australia and New Zealand where a 48-hour week is the norm.