This excellent letter in today’s Irish Times cuts right to the core of why Susie Long died.
Madam,
The death of Susie Long has provoked understandable expressions of sympathy and concern from many people. The Taoiseach expressed his own anguish in Dáil Éireann on Tuesday. These sentiments seem to be a genuine mark of his humanity.
He implied that the system had failed her. We disagree. The system actually worked exactly as it is designed to do. She was a public patient and therefore had to go on a waiting list – for seven months. Another patient with the same condition was treated within a few days because he had private health insurance.
This is the two-tier health system, working perfectly as designed.
Yours, etc,
ELIZABETH WATERS, TONY KENNY, Connaught Street, Phibsboro, Dublin 7.