Top doc's malady

Your article on the shortage of medical specialists, "Top docs a dying breed" (October 30), makes no mention of the most important contribution to the problem made by the Health Department - poor salaries and pensions.

I was a fairly "top doc", head of an important speciality, at a well-known Cape Town public hospital for 33 years. My retirement pension is, after tax, R15500 a month.

While I was earning it, the salary was also pretty miserable.

Is it any wonder doctors either do not specialise or leave the country after specialising?