DOCTORS: Don't endanger public support

As the years progress, we find ourselves in more and more need of medical assistance and, in my view, if I am in pain, I think doctors should be able to write their own cheques providing they take the pain away. However, if they proceed with a threatened five-day strike I fear they will only be the losers.

Doctors, at the moment, have the backing of the general public but if they proceed with this planned course of action, they will lose it.

I think their union representatives are at best immature but certainly lacking in experience which can only be gained after years of practice.

The age group of their representatives does not convey that sort of experience to me. In fact, I am seeing in the doctors’ union people expressing their views in the same way as was done by Tony Benn and Arthur Scargill many years ago. Both men were extremely good at their jobs, very knowledgeable, but they went too far and that was their downfall.

In negotiations, there must be give and take and neither side will come away with 100 per cent of what they seek to achieve. Consider your position doctors and for God’s sake do not lose the backing of the public.

Phill Armstrong,

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