Sir, - I am a partner in a practice which provides general medical services to a large number of patients under the medical card scheme. In recent years we have provided medical care to a good number of refugees from four or five different countries. They generally arrive to us from Cherry Orchard Hospital, where they have received a high standard of medical care, including vaccinations.
They face a huge number of problems, with their medical problems often being the least of them. Entering a different civil society without networks and the local language is a daunting experience. In their early days of consulting the practice we often have great difficulty in communicating with them, as they usually come without an interpreter. My own experience in this practice - and one is shared by my colleagues - is that refugees probably do not get to know the medical system well enough to abuse it. In our experience refugees are no more likely to abuse the medical system than the indigenous population. We cannot speak about other systems.
As a general practitioner I have a contract with the Eastern Health Board to supply medical services to patients who chose to sign on with me. To my knowledge the chairman of the Eastern Health Board has not asked GPs about abuses of the health care system by refugees. Nor has he recognised the fact that refugees are treated no differently from our other patients.
His inflammatory statements as reported in The Irish Times have let us all down, as they could well be interpreted as representing the views of all healthcare providers associated with the Eastern Health Board. Mr Callely has openly stigmatised some of our most vulnerable patients. In my opinion it is wrong for him to continue to chair an organisation that is charged with health and social care when he has such negative views about some of the clients whom that organisation has a statutory duty to look after.
The chairman of the Eastern Health Board is to be expected to set the tone for the organisation and to provide leadership in the many difficult areas facing the board. Mr Callely has failed on both counts - and most of all, he seems to lack humanitarian concern for all the clients of his board. - Yours, etc., Dr T.C. O'Dowd,
General Practitioner, Springfield Medical Centre, Alderwood Avenue, Tallaght, Dublin 24.