Madam, - I was surprised by the usually free-thinking Fintan O'Toole's column on private hospitals (Opinion, August 23rd).
I thought he would have been glad that the bed-blocking behaviour of private medicine in public sector hospitals is finally to be stopped.
Mr O'Toole suggests that "the problem is that patients are not customers, and that there is no market in illness. Sick people don't shop around".
He is right. The problem is that the existing system does not allow patients to be customers, and they can't shop around.
He attempts to prove that private hospitals waste money, are less efficient and kill their patients more often than public hospitals.
He may be right. If so, these private ventures will fail, losing their owners millions. The status quo will triumph and existing vested interests will be vindicated.
Let's suck it and see. What have we to lose? - Yours, etc,
MARTIN DODGE,
Princess Park Manor,
London W11.