Madam, - On the surface it would appear that the nurses' demands are unreasonable, as they are in effect seeking increased pay to do less work. The reality, however, is somewhat different.
For decades both doctors and nurses have been trying to highlight the appalling state of our health service only to be ignored by administrators. These same "managers" successfully squandered billions of taxpayers' money while simultaneously reducing the number of acute hospital beds. The cost of settling the nurse's dispute would be a tiny fraction of the amount wasted by our culture of administrative incompetence.
Unfortunately, shortly after taking office Minister for Health Mary Harney chose to reward these same administrators with a guaranteed job for life in the new Health Service Executive. She seems then to have decided on a policy of consistently ignoring, insulting and patronising healthcare professionals working in the front line.
This industrial action did not arise overnight, nor in my view is it solely a pay dispute. Both the nursing and medical professions have lost all confidence in a Minister who has rewarded incompetence and frequently threatened dedicated healthcare workers.
Ms Harney should recognise her failures and apologise to the electorate. - Yours, etc,
Dr RUAIRI HANLEY, Francis Street, Drogheda, Co Louth.
Madam, - Has anyone defined what is "working to rule"? Commentators and others appear to accept this nonsense - for this is what it is - unquestioningly. Are nurses serious when they say they will not use computers or answer the phones? There is a fair chance that both these tasks were part of productivity deals years ago. I would also wager that if they were instructed not to use computers or telephones that they would strike.
The nurses get into benchmarking quickly. They still retain plenty of public goodwill, but not as much as they used to, and the longer this dispute goes on the more that will erode.
A 35-hour week! What the Government should be pressing for is to bring those others, who have a 35-hour week, back to 39 hours. The governments of Germany and France have belatedly recognised that they cannot afford the 35-hour week and are trying to reverse it. - Yours, etc,
LIAM O'CAISAIDE, Celbridge, Co Kildare.
Madam, - Nurses are the backbone of a health service that has failed the Irish people miserably. Pleas about the financial impossibility of implementing higher pay and reduced working hours look ridiculous in a system where the HSE has poured money into an administration that has seen billions wasted.
Let's start rewarding the people who are keeping the system from tipping over the edge and not continue to empty Government coffers into the abyss of ineffective administration. If the HSE management could emulate the efficiency and effectiveness of nurses, it would be a model for 21st-century healthcare. - Is mise,
SARAH STEEN, Grange Road, Dublin 16.
Madam, - Is anyone else as dismayed as I am at the increasingly petty list of tasks nurses should not be asked to undertake, now that they have degrees? - Yours, etc,
MARIE MacSWEENEY, Drogheda, Co Louth.