YP Letters: Honouring our debt to work of NHS

I AM deeply in debt and can never pay back what I owe. I owe doctors and nurses my life, so enough is enough (The Yorkshire Post, June 29).

I could mention names but, without consent, will not do so. It is incumbent on me to make some effort.

I spoke to hospital staff on the wards and, in A&E, listened to what they said about low morale, pay, shortage of numbers, target pressures. Despite this I was given care, time, understanding and humour.

I have held for many years an instinctive ‘gut feeling’ of mistrust of the Conservatives where the NHS is concerned, with the claws of privatisation extended, so shareholders and profits come first.

I am not so naive to believe that the NHS does not need reform. But recent awful events in Manchester and London have shown how the NHS staff and brave firefighters, when needed, rise to the occasion. Stand by them now and back them.

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

IT is, of course, the job of public sector trade unions like the BMA and RCN to campaign for more pay for their members. In that respect, nurse Anne Kennedy’s article (The Yorkshire Post, June 29) is fairly typical.

Yes, in the short term, a pay rise would be nice for nurses. But before you know it, everyone else will want the same and the country simply does not generate enough real wealth to pay for such a lemming-like rush to the economic precipice. The public sector wages bill is already catastrophically high – half the tax I pay goes to fund health and social services as it is.

The only result of allowing widespread pay rises, where these are not justified by increased prices or met by increased productivity, would be rampant wages-led inflation which destroys jobs and drives those on low incomes either into poverty or into the arms of the loan sharks.

If that is what you want, then elect Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street, but don’t say I didn’t warn you of the consequences.

From: Paul Muller, Woodthorpe Gardens, Sandal, Wakefield.

WHY is there a shortage of nurses in our NHS?

The Nursing 2000 project took nurses away from the bedside and changed their training from hospital to university.

Nursing is an apprenticeship and a practical vocation which is learned on hospital wards, not an academic career.

Finally, the nurse bursaries have now been taken from them, and so now we have 9,000 unfilled nurse training posts in universities, meaning even fewer nurses in the future.

From: Paul Christian, Editor and Media Officer, National Pharmacy Association.

PRESCRIPTION charges deter many people from getting medicines which their doctor prescribes. Patients on low incomes who do not qualify for exemption suffer the most. Patients sometimes make a decision not to take all the medicines they need because they can’t afford the charges.

From a pharmacist’s point of view, processing prescription levies is part of the job that adds workload but no patient benefit. Pharmacists are healthcare professionals – not tax collectors.

Removing the burden of administering prescription levies would release time for patient care. This time could be better spent helping patients and tackling the serious problem of under-diagnosed and poorly treated long-term conditions.

From: Dr Hilary Andrews (retired),Nursery Lane, Leeds.

I AGREE that prescriptions for long term conditions should be free (The Yorkshire Post, June 29).

When I was in practice, I kept on my desk the true price of all the medicines to show to patients if necessary. Mostly this showed them that they were getting a fantastic bargain. For others, it showed that asking for paracetamol or aspirin on prescription cost the NHS far more than if they had bought such medicines at Tesco.

BBC and the enemy within

From: Alan Chapman, Bingley.

THE Public Broadcasting Charter charges the BBC with impartial reporting of the news. But now the BBC seeks to make the news. The reason is the introduction of 24 hour rolling news – a great folly.

There are natural lulls in the day’s events, including some quiet days, but the steamship demands stories all day long, it has got out of hand.

The left-wing press plus the media face of the Labour Party, the BBC, are hounding Theresa May by attempting to bring the national nightmare into No 10 Downing Street – yes, I mean Jeremy Corbyn.

Is it any wonder Andrea Leadsom called for more patriotism from the media?

All the Remainers in the Commons want the Government to crashland Brexit, thus letting the Leave voters down.

The rump of the PM’s enemies are in the Conservative Party establishment, led by George Osborne.

Along with big business, they will stop at nothing to keep lining their pockets. Beware the enemy within!

Come clean on open door

From: John Riseley, Harrogate.

CHANNEL 4’s Dispatches programme demonstrated 
that a system for limiting immigration is liable to accept one person and reject another when the difference in their circumstances is otherwise trivial and the latter can reasonably cry ‘unfair’.

It is time for the media 
and the immigration appeals industry to come clean 
about just who, if anyone, 
they would be content for us to turn away.

It may well be that their bottom line is for everyone who wishes to be allowed to stay.