Local NHS leaders must take charge of virus response – Yorkshire Post Letters

SOME parts of Yorkshire are bearing the worst of the coronavirus epidemic and cases are still rising everywhere.

Our country is one of the richest in the world, yet has suffered the highest level of excess deaths in Europe. The areas most at risk are deprived communities in northern England, which have been disproportionately hit by the austerity policy of the last 10 years, inflicting massive cuts at local level to health and social care provision.

But rather than strengthen local provision, the Government’s response to the emergency has been to sideline and underfund local government public health teams, NHS laboratories and Public Health England regional health protection teams.

Instead of using on-the-ground experience of public sector experts, money for critical infrastructure has been funnelled into huge outsourced contracts to private sector amateurs and providers of unusable PPE.

The £10bn test and trace system hailed by the Prime Minister as ‘world beating’ is – months later – only managing to hit 10 per cent of its 24-hour turnaround target. Meanwhile, another £60m of taxpayers’ money has been handed out, without proper tendering, to private consultants without the necessary transparency being followed.

The Government ignored the advice of its Sage committee experts and cynically exploited the epidemic as an opportunity to privatise the NHS.

I have complained to my MP Kevin Hollinrake but mine is just one voice. If you want to save the NHS and its brave key workers who put their lives on the line, I recommend that you also write to your MP.

From: Bob Swallow, Townhead Avenue, Settle.

BILL Carmichael (The Yorkshire Post, October 2) writes understandably from the heart and any reasonable parent would do the same. This is a very tough time yet not of our own making.

The Government has come in for some much deserved stick, yet would any other administration have done better?

One person has however to my mind come out of this fiasco with some credit: the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

By his own admission he has not been able to help everyone affected by the pandemic but he has done his best to alleviate the worst situations.

None of this is of our own making, that lies at the door of the Chinese administration with an appalling record not least in human rights including treatment of many of its own citizens. I just hope that the UK Government remembers this in the future when the Chinese try to flog their products to us.

From: David Craggs, Shafton Gate, Goldthorpe.

HAVING just watched on TV the Leeds Rhinos versus Wigan Warriors Challenge Cup semi-final at a spectator-less venue, surely it is not beyond the capability of man to come up with a plan that would allow a large number of spectators to watch such a game?

The plan would be quite simple. The huge spectator areas could be taped off in such a way as to ensure that individuals are two metres apart. The two-metre rule could also be applied to the queues leading up to the turnstiles. The supermarkets and DIY stores have been successful at doing this, so why not a sports venue?

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Thank you

James Mitchinson