Madam, - Your Editorial on "Challenges for the health system" (January 3rd) gives cause for optimism on the public health front.
At the end of a dispiriting analysis of the state of the health services you point to positive developments on the immunisation front, in respect of hepatitis B and pneumococcus. Immunisation is just one of a range of preventive activities that score very highly on costs versus benefits. Costs will be an issue for the foreseeable future in the health services so it is incumbent on all with influence and power to promote effective prevention strategies.
Your last paragraph is a rallying call to Minister for Health Mary Harney to grasp the legislative nettle in relation to lifestyle-related health problems, which are causing misery and placing demands on over-stretched services. The last time Mary Harney introduced health-promoting legislation - the 1989 a ban on smoky coal - she saved many lives. She can save even more by addressing the current problems which you listed: obesity, alcohol and illicit drugs.
The public health community expects no less, and the public deserve no less, from the Minister for Health. - Yours, etc,
Prof JOE BARRY,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2.