Sir, Further to the letter from Dr Hamish Meldrum (June 4), the government which made the deal with doctors four years ago is emphatically not the one currently in power, whose urgent duty it is to undo the reckless overspending of its predecessor. By analogy, one presumes that Dr Meldrum would have no moral scruples in pocketing the benefit of an accidental undercharge from a shopkeeper or tradesman. It would appear also that the nobility of sacrifice by those well-off for those less so is not a quality which characterises the BMA.
At a time when conventional pension advice in the private sector is that percentage contributions at start-up should be about half the contributor’s age, the 14.5 per cent asked from the highest-paid (and only the highest-paid) doctors for a top-quality product must be an outstanding bargain. That the BMA is “very reluctantly” taking action echoes the mantras of more militant unions in parading phoney apologies for the “absolutely necessary” inconvenience to the public. Treatment delays and unnecessary patient suffering are no less inconveniences than withdrawn transport and shortage of supplies.
N. D. Thomson
Forres, Morayshire