Jan 12: Drunks have no place in our A&Es

THE title Accident & Emergency gives a precise description of what this department of the NHS is designed to treat.

If a person who has not had an accident or is not suffering from a medical emergency presents themselves at an A&E department, they should be refused treatment.

Part of the role of management is to say no where appropriate. Getting drunk is something that is not achieved by accident and unless unconscious is not a medical emergency.

I totally agree with remarks by both Peter Hyde (The Yorkshire Post, January 6) and Bob Swallow (The Yorkshire Post, January 7). Lock drunks up in uncomfortable, secure accommodation. There are lots of those in West Yorkshire.

Once in residence they can vomit on each other to their hearts content without bothering the emergency services. Processing them through the court system the following day with a hefty fine and the cost of their accommodation would be an effective deterrent.

From: R Firth, Woodgarth Court, Campsall, Doncaster.

I FEEL sure that many of your readers, like me, are disgusted with the way that party politicians are looking to 
further their own careers at the expense of the future safety of the NHS.

From an early age, I was taught to view any statement by asking the basic questions ‘Who says?’ and ‘Why?’. In the present difficulties, it is easy to see 
the possible huge political advantage to the party leaders in the run-up to the General Election in defending or attacking these problems with their blame game.

What needs much more clarification is the accuracy of the figures on waiting times and the possible motives of the compilers in providing ammunition to one side or the other. The welfare of the patients and the NHS seems to come a poor second to the personal ambitions of the combatants.

From: Bob Watson, Springfield Road, Baildon.

THE clue is surely in the title? Accident & Emergency.

Those attending who do not come under this criteria should be directed elsewhere.

Further, those with self-inflicted problems, for example through alcohol, should be suitably charged for blocking up the system.

If there is indeed a crisis (The Yorkshire Post, January 7), then part of this would seem to be brought about by unnecessary patients, and measures such as those outlined above, need to be put in place as a matter of urgency.

Questions
of faith

From: H Marjorie Gill, Clarence Drive, Menston,

WHile no one could possibly condone the massacre of the newspaper cartoonists in Paris, one has to consider whether making a mocking cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed is actually a subject which should be treated in this fashion? Everybody has something or someone whom they love or revere. The very idea of – say – depicting Jesus Christ being crucified in a mocking cartoon would absolutely send a shock of outraged horror throughout the Christian world.

From: David Hanson, Chief Executive, IAPS (Independent Association of Prep Schools), Waterloo Place, Leamington Spa.

IN his argument for faith to be taught only as an academic subject, GP Taylor (Why Faith Has No Place in our Schools, The Yorkshire Post, January 7) misses the fact that many schools already offer what he seeks in terms of separating core personal attributes from religious practices.

Many of our schools were established as faith-based but today educate children from families of many faiths and those with none. They do not confuse the values of respect, service, compassion and integrity with proselytising the faith.

Ways to chat on a train

From: Edward Grainger, Botany Way, Nunthorpe, North Yorkshire.

I AM sure I am not alone in asserting that the constant use of the mobile phones and laptops etc on trains and buses and the lack of normal day-to-day conversation with our fellow travellers just fuels the epidemic of loneliness and isolation that people of all ages feel, as highlighted by The Yorkshire Post during the whole of 2014.

There are already numerous places where the art of conversation has all but disappeared, such as doctors’ and dentists’ waiting rooms and lifts in shops and flats. Public transport has effectively gone the same way.

People like me who respond to the art of intelligent conversation may well be described as dinosaurs, but like those ancient, extinct reptiles we, and conversation, without the aid of technology may yet be rediscovered.

From: Rod Eastwood, Nursery Avenue, Ovenden, Halifax.

MR Wright (The Yorkshire Post, January 5) should count himself lucky that he heard a torrent of “...so I said and then she said....” on his train journey, rather than “...so I’m like, then she’s like...” ad infinitum.

With regard to the term ‘guys’ used to designate all genders, I noticed this usage in America as long ago as 1964, so it is clearly yet another unwanted import.