Letters: NHS patients and doctors deserve better than endless red tape
SIR – I firmly believe that the undeniable problems of the NHS will not be fixed by simply providing more money.
As a patient, the care I have received – on several occasions – has been excellent, but to get it I have had to navigate endless administrative hurdles, errors, barriers and waste.
I know many NHS workers who have to endure similar bureaucracy simply to provide the care they want to give. This common theme is the (not to be unexpected) result of an extremely large organisation subject to ceaseless political interference.
It is not too late for a radical rethink, drawing on the best that has been achieved here and around the world, and preserving the attractive ethos of an excellent service free at the point of use.
I don’t expect politicians to have the courage to grasp the problem by its roots – but might politicians at least have the courage to commission a body which can?
Martin Moyes
Holt, Wiltshire
SIR – Precious NHS resources could be used more efficiently, with hopefully a positive impact on patient waiting lists (Comment, December 19).
Labour’s plan to run a 24/7 NHS, with weekend use of operating theatres, may superficially seem to be part of the solution. But one must ask: where will the necessary extra consultant surgeons, junior doctors, nurses and other supporting staff be found? Paying doctors overtime will not solve the problem because these already busy professionals will presumably require time off during the week, as compensation for the extra hours worked at the weekend.
It will be interesting to see how the Labour Party proposes to solve these problems.
Malcolm H Wheeler FRCS
Emeritus Professor of Surgery
Bonvilston, Glamorgan
SIR – Jamie Buchanan says that a 7-day-a-week NHS is “admirable” but “wholly unrealistic” (Letters, December 19). Is it really?
When my late mother, Judy, was battling cancer in Toronto, Canada, she was once called to an MRI at 1am. The machine was considered too expensive to ever turn off, and patients were offered appointments 24/7. The real benefit? Unlike the UK, where the average wait time for an MRI on the NHS is reportedly between six and 18 weeks, she had to wait only three days.
The Canadian medical system is public, just like the NHS. If they can do it, so can we.
Miriam Shaviv
Edgware, Middlesex
Pothole problems
SIR – The Asphalt Industry Alliance has issued a report stating that £12.7 billion of investment is needed to secure long-term improvement to our roads. Yet the Government has announced funding of £8.3 billion from the abandoned HS2 stage, in addition to existing and future maintenance budgets.
Two things need to happen: first, the existing budgets should be protected before the extra money is allocated, to prevent this capital injection from being used for other purposes. Secondly, The Department for Transport should manage the improvement – not local authorities – and therefore demand detailed plans from each local road maintenance department, showing the roads to be resurfaced and timelines for completion.
For if this historic funding is not managed correctly, we will be reading of dangerous potholes from your readers for many years to come.
Stephen Brown
Beverley, East Yorkshire
SIR – The real problem with pothole repairs is that they are not done correctly.
The correct method is to cut back the tar surrounding the pothole to such an extent that the edges of the excavated pothole are of sound, undamaged tar. Then that tar is cut in a “reverse inward slope” with the result that it is slightly undermined. The replacement tar should then be compacted into the hole, making certain that it is pushed under the lip of the sound tar; this stops the raising-up effect of any vertical tyre pressure on the repair. Then the sides of the repair should be sealed with liquid tar, and after the sealing has cooled and hardened, the repair should be rolled.
It is expensive to carry out this type of repair because it is time-consuming and the repairer needs to have a suitable bladed power tool, which requires a significant power source to be readily available. However, this type of repair will outlast a more hastily done job many times over and, in the long term, will be more economical.
Angus Jacobsen
Montrose, Angus
SIR – I recently observed five workers repairing a pothole. Two were working, one was examining his phone, one was enjoying a cigarette and another was sitting on a wall watching the world go by. It is no wonder that pothole repairs are so costly.
Philip Woolcock
Preston, Lancashire
Speaking to Jesus
SIR – Quite recently I was in church and went to light a votive candle, when an extremely elegant gentleman came up beside me. “What ho! Jesus”, he said, “we’re all getting ready for your birthday”.
It moved me deeply to hear someone who was so relaxed in his relationship with Jesus that he used everyday language to pray. Often the words of the prayers in church are so far removed from the life ordinary people lead that they seem to be spoken in a foreign language. Admittedly not everyone uses the Bertie Wooster greeting “What ho!”, but surely we should strive to speak in our prayers a language we would use with our closest friends.
Jane Taylor
Midhurst, West Sussex
Jingle bells in the Cairngorms
SIR – In 1958 I was skiing in the Cairngorms. Our leader, Plum Worral, took us to Lurcher’s crag.
We walked to the top and skied in the sunshine. Then a mist came down. Suddenly we heard tinkling bells, and all around us were reindeer leaping and dancing about, with little bells around their necks. Then the sun returned and they were gone. We had met the herd that had just arrived in Scotland. I am now 91 years old, and still remember clearly those reindeer and their jingling bells.
Richard Manning
London SW1
The trees that built the Navy
SIR – Britain is not the only country still suffering from the effects of building its imperial fleets (Letters, December 18).
The need for timber to build the Armada left Spain with extraordinary deforestation in the 1580s, from which that country did not recover. But woodland-poor countries like the Netherlands also built large (merchant) fleets by importing the timber they needed. One area in particular exported to Holland: southern Germany. For that purpose the Germans plundered the area we now know as Schwarzwald, the Black Forest.
Reforestation took place with a variety of pine species. These new pine forests were much darker than the old deciduous woodlands, and thus the Black Forest got its name. Straight pine trees with a specific diameter and height are still named “Holländermast” to this day.
Dr Jacob Buis
Betws-y-Coed, Caernarfonshire
SIR – Dr Paul Stott points out that HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar, required no less than 6,000 mature oaks for its construction, quite apart from the many teak, pine and elm trees for masts, keels and such like.
At the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21 1805, there were two other “first rates” of similar size, making a total of 27 ships in the British fleet, which is estimated to have required some 128,000 oak trees for its construction. The combined French and Spanish fleet (33 ships) at the battle would have required some 158,000 trees in its construction. At the time of Trafalgar, there were 93 other “ships of the line” in service in the Royal Navy.
No wonder there was such deforestation in Europe and England.
Lt Col Roger Laing (retd)
Iver, Buckinghamshire
SIR – Dr Paul Stott (Letters, December 18) draws the understandable conclusion that the development of iron ships “saved what little forest we had left from further plunder for ships”.
The reality is rather different. It was the demand for timber and underwood that secured the supply, and ensured the survival of our great broadleaved woodlands. Indeed, the forests that have survived are near the centres of demand for their timber, such as the New Forest, near the (historic) south coast ship-building industry. And let’s remember that cutting trees down does not destroy a woodland. The ancient art of coppicing worked because trees regrow from their stumps.
Today, the real threats to our woodlands are deer, grey squirrels and market prices that do not reward good management. It is a challenging business.
W H G Warmington
Taunton, Somerset
Christmas culinary heritage
SIR – When I was a child in Leicestershire, our Christmas was very traditional. The tree was put up on Christmas Eve, ensuring the maximum amount of excitement for the children. Traditional stuffings went with traditional roasts. So, for instance, sage and onion was cooked alongside the leg of pork (on the bone), but it never graced the table as a stuffing for turkey. That was reserved instead for its more delicate relative, parsley and thyme stuffing. This variety seems to have disappeared from the supermarket shelves, in favour of its brash cousin. This is a shame since it enhances the flavour of the poultry.
Stuffings are part of our culinary heritage, and the parsley and thyme variety justly deserves its place on the festive table.
Avril Wright
Snettisham, Norfolk
SIR – On the subject of Christmas food, I think back to my childhood. Brandy butter didn’t exist within our extended family; it was the norm to have rum sauce with our Christmas pudding. It is made by adding a good amount of rum to a sweetened white sauce, which dad was always in charge of doing. It made me wonder: does this family tradition exist elsewhere?
Margaret Bentley
Leeds, West Yorkshire
SIR – John Smith (Letters, December 22) wonders if receiving a Yorkshire pudding with a traditional Christmas dinner is a Norfolk phenomenon. I can assure him this culinary habit has spread countrywide.
Here in Kent, Yorkshire pudding is served with all types of roast meal in pubs and many restaurants. I find this extremely annoying as it was only ever served with roast beef in the “good old days”, and I upset the youngsters in my family when it is omitted from any roast dinner I may cook them.
No doubt they will moan about it today, but I am sticking to my guns and will advise them to have another Brussels sprout if they are still hungry.
Christine Upton
Folkestone, Kent
