The report that the Fitness to Practice Committee of the Medical Council has decided not to carry out an enqiry into the treatment of Pat Joe Walsh, who bled to death at Monaghan Hospital, is alarmingly instructive. It is instructive that two surgeons from outside the jurisdiction of the state, who were commissioned to investigate the case by the HSE, stated among other things, that the unwillingness to admit and care for Mr Walsh at Cavan or Drogheda was “unacceptable”.