Sir, - When one sees Bertie Ahern opening the new facilities at a major private hospital and Mary Harney's useless prescription for treating the waiting-list crisis while the whole public healthcare system is in meltdown, it becomes fairly obvious that the basic solution is to remove the responsibility for the Health Service from politicians once and for all.
Health should not be a party political issue, yet we have seen recently examples of nonsensical decision making by local and national politicians sometimes totally against the recommendations of expert groups commissioned by themselves - usually to assure the continued electoral support of a few uninformed but vocal local constituents.
Let us set up a Health Service Agency which receives protected funding from the Exchequer each year amounting to at least the European average percentage of GNP spent on health.
No more should "Health" have to fight "Social Welfare" and "Defence" at the Cabinet table.
This body should be staffed by recognised experts with a track record in management from inside and outside the Health Service.
Let us disband the Department of Health and Children and all the health boards and replace them at local county level with suitably qualified representatives of both healthcare deliverers and receivers.
It is time to transform a system which, judging by results, obviously is not working. - Yours etc.,
Graham F. Wilson, Rathmines, Dublin 6.