Madam, - We write in the aftermath of a death foretold, the unnecessary death of a young Kilkenny mother from cancer.
In her life, as in her death, Susie Long highlighted a fundamental human right - access to a decent health service. She bore witness to the obscenity of our four-tier health service: one for the rich, another for the less well-off, one for city-dwellers, another for the rest. She was crystal clear about why her cancer had been allowed to progress: it was because she had been let down by a health system the Government refuses to fund properly, the public health system.
In a speech made last May in Kilkenny, at the opening of a new services day unit in her local hospital (St Luke's), Susie Long mentioned the death of a Kilkenny woman who had fallen asleep at the wheel, exhausted, while driving her child home after a specialist consultation in Dublin. Her son suffered from hearing loss, not a rare disorder, yet the treatment he needed was available only in Dublin.
The robotic centralisation of cancer care - in line with Government policy - will add to the burden of many mothers and cancer sufferers.
Many groups have worked tirelessly to expose the scandalous shortcomings of our health service, and to underline the impact of Government health policy on the lives of ordinary people.
We now join Susie Long in calling upon the trade union movement to support our efforts, and those of others, to build a decent public health service, open to everyone, irrespective of income or address.
Susie Long spoke from the heart; her sense of solidarity will continue to be an inspiration to all of us who knew her. What a waste of a wonderful life - a mother, a wife, a friend, a fellow activist.
No one, now, can stand idly by. - Yours, etc,
JANETTE BYRNE, Spokesperson, Patients Together, 82, Finglas Park, Dublin 11.
(Co-signatories: MARIE O'CONNOR, Secretary, Health Services Action Group; PEADAR McMAHON, Chairperson, Monaghan Community Alliance; Dr JOHN BARTON, Consultant physician, Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, Co Galway; PEADAR McNAMARA, Chairperson, Ennis General Hospital Development Committee; Dr CHRISTINE O'MALLEY, Consultant geriatrician, Doctors' Alliance; Dr EAMONN SHANAHAN, General Practitioner, Doctors' Alliance; Prof JOHN NOLAN, Consultant endocrinologist, Doctors' Alliance; Prof ORLA HARDIMAN, Consultant neurologist, Doctors' Alliance; PHILOMENA CANNING, Midwife, National Birth Alliance; NUALA SLATTERY, Clare Cancer Concern; NURIA O'MAHONEY, Holistic Action Group; UNA NÍ CHUINN, Roscommon Hospital Action Group; ROSE HARRINGTON, Lymphoma Ireland Support; Dr TERESA GRAHAM, Sociologist; Dr PAUL O'CONNOR, Consultant Anaesthetist, Letterkenny General Hospital; CONOR, FERGUS and ÁINE McLIAM (Susie Long's family), Callan, Co Kilkenny.
Madam, - There is a link between the proceedings of the Mahon tribunal and the death of Susie Long. The mindset, the moral and ethical standards of senior Government politicians who have appeared at or commented on the tribunal are precisely those which led to the early death of Susie Long.
To add an obscene twist to this tragedy, the Taoiseach spoke of it as if he were an innocent bystander who had just come across the scene of an horrific traffic accident and not the man in charge of the country for the past 10 years.
At some stage in the future very many of us, or a close relative or friend, will find themselves in the same position as Susie Long or her husband or child. Perhaps there will be a gradual acceptance that the low standards in high places that are in evidence at the tribunals do in fact affect, with sometimes fatal consequences, the daily lives of citizens. - Yours, etc,
FERGAL MOLLOY, Wendover, Strawberry Beds, Dublin 20.
Madam, - Elizabeth Waters and Tony Kenny state (October 19th), with regard to how the late Susie Long was treated by the health service, that "the system actually worked exactly as it is designed to do". I disagree.
The way the system is supposed to work is that people with emergency symptoms should be put to the top of the waiting list and given tests straight away. The reason that Susie was not given immediate tests was that nobody with sufficient clout put pressure on the hospital to treat her as an emergency case.
It is not just an issue of waiting lists, which will be with us for quite some time. If we can learn anything from Susie's tragic death, it is how the health system can better identify emergencies and deal with them. - Yours, etc,
DENIS COSTELLO, Glendown Grove, Dublin 6W.