Madam,- The health strategy document Quality and fairness - a health system for you, published in 2001, formed the basis of the Government's manifesto at the last general election. Two summary points were that barriers to accessing services were to be removed and access to services was to be more equitable - the perceived two-tier aspect of health care was to be eliminated. However, the Government is now heading in the opposite direction.
The plethora of tax incentives to build private hospital facilities and the Minister for Health's determination to privatise the extensions to our public hospitals have little democratic mandate. The contracts for private hospital developments on public hospital sites should be held off until the people have given their verdict in May or June. The current rush is contemptuous of democracy. - Yours, etc,
Dr BILL TORMEY (Fine Gael),
Glasnevin Avenue,
Dublin 11.