Sir, – I am a private patient, with an underlying condition and also on the cusp of 70. I have been diagnosed with a severe condition of bone degradation in my hip that requires immediate replacement. However, my consultant in a private hospital has told me that his hands are tied and that there is nothing he can do for me. He operates in a private hospital that has had only a 10 per cent occupancy since it came under the control of the HSE. He has further told me that under recently issued guidelines, patients over 70 and with an underlying condition are not urgent or priority cases. Are the over-70s being discriminated against again? In the past five years I’ve undergone a bone marrow transplant, a hip replacement, a hernia, two cataract operations and earlier this year radiation treatment. Am I now to be thrown on the scrapheap with all the thousands of private patients over 70? Our treatment by the HSE and the Department of Health is a national scandal. – Yours, etc,
JOHN LEAMY,
Castletown,
Co Laois.