YP Letters: Culture needs to be changed in hospitals

From: Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive, Patients Association.

THE findings of the annual Nursing Times survey paint a very worrying picture for the safety and care of patients right across the country. Nurses are clearly under increasing pressure and it is alarming that seven out of 10 respondents said they had seriously considered leaving the profession over the last 12 months, leading to inevitable staff shortages.

In addition, more than half of respondents said they ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ had either sufficient staff or time to ensure safe care was provided to patients, and two-thirds of respondents said that care activities were left undone during their last shift.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It is particularly concerning that the most common activities being left undone were those relating to holistic care, such as comforting or talking with patients, which have a huge impact on patients and their families.The findings show that patient safety is clearly being compromised, and unfortunately this only confirms what we are being told on our National Helpline from patients, public, and carers.

The welfare of patients should always be the priority and the starting point for all treatments.

There is an urgent need for a decisive change in culture and priority to put patient needs at the heart of the care sector, which is why the Patients Association has established a new APPG for Patient Safety that will be looking at a number of patient safety issues, including safe staffing.

Low-carbon option is best

From: Juliet Davenport, Chief Executive, Good Energy.

THE Feed-in Tariff has transformed how the UK generates electricity with more than 750,000 homes now generating their own power.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It has helped move us away from fossil fuels towards a cleaner, local, more democratic energy system.

The new measures are a slight improvement on the original proposals but still mean installing solar panels will no longer be attractive to home-owners and the changes will also make it harder for housing associations and councils to use FIT to help those in fuel poverty.

Last week, world leaders agreed to ambitious plans to reduce carbon emissions. Our Government really needs to get behind new low-carbon technology and take a global lead in seizing the new opportunities.

PM is really pro-Europe

From: Tim Farron MP, Liberal Democrats leader.

THE Prime Minister seems to be trying to emulate Margaret Thatcher in standing up to other EU countries. He is a pro-European Tory wet and he should stop pretending otherwise (The Yorkshire Post, July 17). If this renegotiation is supposed to be the Prime Minister’s legacy, it is one that will be built on sand.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Lib Dems are the only party wholeheartedly committed to fighting to remain in the EU. We believe in an open, modern and inclusive Britain that stands

tall in the world.If David Cameron can’t, or won’t, make the case for the EU – and Labour are clearly ambivalent – the Liberal Democrats will do.

Dangers of life during Blitz

From: Alan German, Station Road, Sutton cum Lound, Retford.

FOLLOWING recent articles on the Sheffield Blitz (Jayne Dowle, The Yorksbhire Post, December 14), perhaps your readers might be interested in a story my mother loves telling.

As a 16-year-old clippie on the trams, she and her driver had to take emergency shelter after her tram was disabled. Feeling safe during the darkness they chatted and smoked the night away until daylight revealed they were sheltering under an abandoned fuel tanker! The story always brings light relief to a desperate situation. How many more stories are waiting to be told?

Not a Tour de Yorkshire...

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

THE prospect of a forthcoming bicycle race around Yorkshire is less than thrilling. Not everyone thinks the Lycra Lads are 
exciting or even remotely interesting.

Though I accept that the possibility of selling a few ice-creams to foreigners will have found favour in certain
 quarters, I imagine that those motorists whose roads are “stolen” for the duration will be less impressed.

What I find most irritating, though, is the name. “Tour de Yorkshire”?

Whose idea was it to ape the French? If it’s a tour of Yorkshire (and that’s stretching a point) then what was so wrong about calling it the “The Tour of Yorkshire”? Or is God’s own county now a departement of France?

More au fait with classics

From: ME Wright, Grove Road, Harrogate.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

CAN we quarrel with Jayne Dowle’s “Cultural chasm” views (The Yorkshire Post, December 17)?

Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that “patronising” Northern Powerhouse Minister, James Wharton, is a victim of educational apartheid, having been sent to St Peter’s school in York.

It seems likely that he is more au fait with Caesar’s goings-on in Gaul than Britain’s Industrial Revolution.

As to the Redcar Steelworks; I imagine that, as with Kellingley Colliery, David Cameron will send his grateful thanks; no doubt James will join him in 
this.

Regrettably, he finds himself part of the Bullingdon Boys and Wannabe set, who parade in hard hats, eating pies.