The phrase "a difficult and essential" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe something that is both challenging and necessary in a particular context.
Example: "Learning a new language can be a difficult and essential skill for global communication."
Alternatives: "a challenging and crucial" or "a tough and vital".
"What I now see is that even if we get the reform through – which will be a difficult and divisive process, although essential – I am probably not the best person to pick up the pieces following the inevitable discord".
"I had already decided that if no reform was possible I was going to leave anyway this summer, a position I had shared with a number of colleagues," said Dyke. "What I now see is that even if we get the reform through, which will be a difficult and divisive process although essential, I am probably not the best person to pick up the pieces following the inevitable discord".
The result is a searing, painful, painstakingly documented six episodes, which make for both difficult and essential viewing.
It is a difficult and exhausting straddle, he admits, but essential to preserving a relationship that helped produce the modern Saudi nation and, for more than six decades, fed the insatiable American appetite for oil.
"Facing up to these mistakes has been a difficult, but essential part of making RBS a safe and strong bank once again".
The interactional structure they identify in these encounters is positioned as problematic: 'avoiding exclusion is a difficult but an essential element toward practising "patient-centred care" and preserving the patient's dignity' (p. 389).
The identification of high-risk surgical patients is a difficult task, but essential for their proper treatment, surgery time together with the SAPS 3 seem to be useful tools in this differentiation and may help to better characterize this population.
