Letters: Having to work from home is bad for employees and customers too

SIR – There may be benefits to both employers and employees of spending fewer days in the office (report, May 11), but what about customers?

I have had odd phone calls with people working from home. One had to put me on hold to deal with her dog, which was barking so loudly we couldn’t hear each other. A second apologised for the crunching noises, explaining he was eating toast while finding my details on the computer. A third failed to make promised return calls and couldn’t understand simple details – the slurred speech was what really concerned me.

Without colleagues around people will set their own standards and problems such as ill-health will be missed. And just how safe are our payment card details and personal records in these unsupervised hands?

Barbara Harrison
Beverley, East Yorkshire

SIR – Why won’t local government offices open up to the public? Shops have all been open for a month and food stores never closed, yet our public servants are still hiding away.

We continue to endure long-winded Covid phone messages when we ring the GP. Why can’t they see that their doors should now be flung open? Why are banks open for such short periods, and why do they still force customers to queue outdoors?

Let’s be brave and get back to normal for the sake of our sanity. There is now no excuse to stay closed.

Ken Ward
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire

SIR – A worrying feature of the past year is the Government speaking about guidance as if it were law.

It is nonsense for Boris Johnson to say that hugging is to be “allowed” from May 17 (report, May 11). It has never not been allowed, only advised against. Similar advice is given on our intake of fruit and vegetables, or on stopping smoking. In health matters we are entitled to use common sense and personal judgment.

Sadly, many genuinely believe they will soon be “free” to hug loved ones for the first time in more than a year. In truth they have been free all along. The careless, or perhaps deliberate, conflation of legal rules and guidance by ministers should not be forgotten. Nor must it be allowed to be repeated.

Nicholas Higgs
London W1

SIR – What kind of country are we living in where the Government tells us when and where we may hug our relatives and friends? Throughout the pandemic, the Government’s use of language has been dramatically insensitive, and indicative of worrying presumptions of power.

Michael Oatley
Nunney, Somerset

SIR – Pleased as I am at being allowed to hug my grandchildren, I should be happier if I were permitted to watch them play cricket from the boundary. Could someone correct this absurdity?

Richard Hardman
Standford, Hampshire

Hospice care for all

SIR – My husband died at home (Letters, May 11) of lung cancer, pain-free and with dignity, in August 2020. Being able to stay at home was very important to him, especially given the difficulties of hospital care due to Covid-19 at that point.

At no time did he or I feel that his treatment and care were less effective than anything he might have received in hospital. On the contrary, we were profoundly grateful for the wonderful care he received in his final days.

His care team was led by his personal nurse from Phyllis Tuckwell (our local hospice) and brought together his GP, hospice care at home and district nurses to provide compassionate 24-hour care. The hospice also coordinated with the local authority to provide nursing aids, including a stair lift and a hospital bed, and helped him apply for benefits to which he was entitled. It organised carers from a local agency, who visited four times daily, and once near the end an overnight sitter was provided. All this was free at the point of access. This should be a nationwide model for palliative care at home.

It is astonishing that hospices are still not fully funded by the NHS, and have to rely on donations and volunteers to continue their invaluable work. It is appalling that many people are dying on their own without this assistance, and that numbers are likely to grow. Surely, while the Government looks at how to deal with the growing need for social care, it is also time to incorporate the hospice movement fully into the NHS and fund it properly.

Caroline Sinclair
Aldershot, Hampshire

Seeing the doctor

SIR – I dispute Dr Nikki Kanani’s claim that patients always have the option to see a GP face to face (Letters, May 7).

Last month I had an inflamed big toe for a few days. As I am diabetic, all the guidelines advised contacting a GP. I rang the surgery (not 10 miles from Dr Kanani’s practice), described my symptoms, and was offered an appointment in four days’ time. Then I was told to send in a photo of the toe, as this would not be a face-to-face meeting, but a telephone consultation.

When I finally got the GP consultation, they couldn’t make a diagnosis from the photo, but arranged for me to see a practice nurse in person later that very day, and for me to give a tissue sample for testing. Four weeks later I’m still awaiting the test results.

Keith Appleyard
West Wickham, Kent

SIR – I have great sympathy for doctors’ receptionists, for I once was one.

Recently, needing to speak to a doctor, I started phoning at 8am and was put through after waiting over 40 minutes. I explained that before I spoke to a doctor I needed a blood test. Fine, I was told; ring back in the afternoon and make an appointment. If the result required a consultation then the surgery would contact me.

With the results in, I was told that the doctor would like to speak to me, and that I needed to ring at 8am to be added to the doctor’s telephone list. I wasn’t able to do it there and then as “telephone appointments are only made on the same day”.

Next morning at 8am…

Penny Russell-Grant
Colchester, Essex

SIR – When I was a medical student in the 1960s, we were taught that an adequate consultation included not only a history, but also a physical examination. When did this change, and why is the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, suggesting that there should be more video consultations?

Dr Bill Easson
Buxton, Derbyshire

Cut off from the UK

SIR – Jacob Rees-Mogg (Comment, May 11) says that the State Opening of Parliament represents Parliament exercising the full power of its sovereignty once again.

If only that were true. Here in Northern Ireland we are in the grip of a hostile, vindictive and belligerent European Union, which is determined to make us the price of Brexit, whatever the consequences. When will Parliament stand up to Brussels and restore Northern Ireland to its rightful place in the United Kingdom?

Andrew Babington
Belfast

Casting wistful looks at other people’s wisteria

SIR – The wisteria at Jesus College (report, May 6) must be blessed to have avoided recent frosts.

Our 23-year-old specimen has had almost all its blossom buds destroyed, leaving us with only a small area (sheltered from the early morning sun) in bloom.

Andrew Blake
Marlborough, Wiltshire

Where will destroying church monuments end?

SIR – I read that the Church of England is now joining in with this unintelligent destruction of memorials (“Church tells parishes to review slavery links”, report, May 10).

We are all sinners, so if wrongdoers’ memorials are removed, there would be none left at all.

Frances M Berrill
Hassocks, West Sussex

SIR – Some of the monuments in my local church are to the Dukes of Norfolk in Tudor times – not saints, any of them. They are Grade I listed, however.

When will people realise that you cannot change the past? Slavery has existed for millennia, and in all civilisations. Should we put an apologetic notice on the pyramids?

What we can do is hunt out and eliminate modern slavery, which is everywhere, and happening now, all over this country and in the wider world. The present is something we can change, if we have the will.

Linda Shelley
Woodbridge, Suffolk

SIR – In his recent efforts to cancel history, perhaps – given his family ties to India during the Empire and a personal role in the oil industry in Africa – the Archbishop of Canterbury could start with himself.

After all, the Church of England has cancelled that truly Christian virtue – forgiveness.

Matthew Burrows
London SW18

SIR – Just when and how did Church authorities assume control of the fabric of parish churches?

Throughout most of English history, the people and their civic leaders built, furnished and maintained their churches in whatsoever manner they chose. Only the chancel was an area for ecclesiastical responsibility. What is the legal foundation for the “director of churches and cathedrals” ordering church councils to examine historic memorials for evidence of “contested heritage” (report, May 11)?

The same question applies to diocesan officers who contrive to tell local churchgoers what they may and may not do with their churches, but pay little, if anything, towards the cost, and indeed demand a handsome contribution from the parishes each year towards their own expenses.

Tom Bliss
Sleaford, Lincolnshire

Product placement

SIR – It must be possible to produce a mobile app whereby one could find out where a product was manufactured (Letters, May 11) by typing in its make and model number. I would gladly pay a modest annual subscription to use it.

Richard Clark
Devizes, Wiltshire

All that jazz

SIR – I read The Pursuit of Love 60 years ago and was surprised how much of it I still found amusing in the new BBC adaptation – but how sad to miss the opportunity for some background music of the time.

The younger generation won’t appreciate jazz unless they hear it.

Virginia Newton
Much Hadham, Hertfordshire

SIR – For years I have campaigned against the seemingly unstoppable rise of background music (report, May 11), which, coupled with whispered dialogue, makes television programmes tiresome to watch. I cannot make out what the actors are saying above the din.

The quality of a programme is determined by the acting, not the crashing chords which accompany it.

Richard Statham
Langport, Somerset

Poignant pigeon

SIR – “Die Taubenpost” was Franz Schubert’s last song, written shortly before his death in 1828.

The words by Johann Gabriel Seidl tell of his sending his faithful carrier pigeon (Letters, May 10) out to his love a thousand times a day. Schubert’s poignant accompaniment is often played too fast.

Fay Davies
Llandysul, Cardiganshire

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