Penalise the doctors

BEFORE inflicting charges on medical card-holders, Health Minister Mary Harney should be aware that overprescribing is usually a doctor’s fault and not that of the patient.

Prescriptions are quite often an ineffective burden on both patients and taxpayers.

If the medical profession had a solution-focused outlook, then people would be cured within a year instead of being told to take tablets for the rest of their lives.

It is for these reasons that doctors, and not patients, need to be penalised.

Dr Florence Craven

Maynooth

Co Kildare