The cost ofadvice

Madam, - I read in your edition of January 8th about the Government's plans to allocate a further €100 million to fund the procurement…

Madam, - I read in your edition of January 8th about the Government's plans to allocate a further €100 million to fund the procurement of advice in relation to the health services.

Then I turned to the Letters page and I found some very pertinent and downright sensible sounding advice from Dr Peter Kelly on the topic of stroke recognition and care.

While Dr Kelly's advice made perfect sense to me I can readily appreciate that it may well have lacked something in terms of appeal - pzazz, if you like.What a pity Dr Kelly could not have eschewed The Irish Times Letters page and perhaps taken a conference suite in an idyllic parkland country house hotel.

This would have allowed him to serve a rather fruity little white with, perhaps, some canapés while delivering a fast-paced, media-friendly "presentation" on his chosen topic.

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It is a resounding testimony to the calibre and professionalism of practitioners such as Dr Kelly that he decided to use the real-world media to highlight his very real concerns rather than "take the shilling" and join the increasingly irrelevant circus which health service executives appear to feel the need to promote. - Yours, etc,

BILLY FLEMING, Tallaght, Dublin 24.