YP Letters: NHS troubles can be of its own making

YOUR headline “Operations axed due to bed shortage” (The Yorkshire Post, July 8) caused me amusement and dismay. On Saturday my brother was in St James’s Hospital and had to wait two days for transport to take him to his care home in Pudsey.

Earlier this year he had to wait four days for transport back to Pudsey. Each time he occupied a much-needed hospital bed.

Sadly he is a frequent user of the hospitals but a significant part of each stay has been due to the discharge process. Amongst the reasons given have been “the pharmacy have not got your meds ready”; “there isn’t a doctor to sign the discharge”; “the discharge clerk does not work at weekends”.

Each time, a bed was occupied unnecessarily for one or more days. Once he did make it home on the same day, by a hospital-arranged taxi, only to have another taxi deliver his meds an hour later.

His medical care has been exemplary, but organisational issues led to this ‘bed blocking’. In his case alone, this has cost seven or eight bed/nights this year alone.

From: Brian H Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

PAUL Muller dismisses my recent letter defending GPs in the face of unreasonable patients as “inaccurate” (The Yorkshire Post, July 6).

I thought I had made it crystal clear that the 31 missed appointments at a surgery in one week were for patients who simply failed to show up, i.e., they hadn’t bothered to cancel.

Of course, as he argues, if Mr Muller recovers from a minor ailment before his appointment there is no point in seeing the doctor: but all he has to do is pick up the phone and cancel.

Thanks to a cancellation I was once able to obtain a pressing same-day appointment.

From: Don Webb, Rothwell, Leeds.

REGARDING Paul Muller (The Yorkshire Post, July 6). If you no longer need to see a doctor, you should cancel the appointment you have made.

This appointment can then be given to someone who needs it.

Many factors hit teaching

From: Norma McNichol, Lynwood Drive, Barnsley.

I WRITE in reply to the letter from Hugh Rogers (The Yorkshire Post, July 10). Surely the failure of children to meet the targets does not just depend on the quality of teaching, but on many other factors?

Many children now come from families that have been disrupted by divorce and split-ups between parents and partners. This cannot help the child to feel secure and settled.

Some children do not get much back-up from home if the parents are busy working and leading stressful lives. When I used to help out hearing children read, their books (which should have been brought to school) were often missing because they had got up too late or had been staying at a friend’s or relative’s house.

Every child is an individual and some are high achievers and some are not, so not every child will achieve the required standard however hard they try.

A number of programmes have been made about teaching in schools, notably Educating Yorkshire, Educating Essex and Educating Cardiff.

All three programmes showed that teachers spend a great amount of time trying to sort problems out. This, together with increasing Government demands, leaves little time for actual teaching.

Dissent over devolution

From: Alan Disberry, Sheffield.

JAKE Berry MP has decided that democracy is not good enough for Yorkshire folk and that we are not going to be allowed a vote as to what type of devolution deal we can have (The Yorkshire Post, July 10).

Given the Brexit referendum and General Election results, I can understand why Mr Berry doesn’t want to trust the electorate to give him the right answer.

Will Yorkshire get a £1bn bung to toe-the-line, I wonder?

From: Lionel Pyrah, Normanton.

WITH regard to the Yorkshire devolution issue, we hear a Government minister has suggested that the county ‘needs to get its act together’ if it is to follow those English regions now taking advantage of Whitehall’s cash bonanza.

The Minister is right as, in my view, delay may prove disastrous for those areas of the White Rose county now playing catch-up.

It has also been indicated that a decision on devolution in these parts is expected by December.

Let us not hold our breath!

From: Ian Smith, Bradford.

THERE should be a case for devolving power other than via political mayors, using existing structures – if only their heads, including Yorkshire’s MPs, would get together impartially. Diktats don’t go down well in God’s own county.

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

SHOULD the devolution options for Yorkshire be put to voters in a referendum so the public can decide on this county’s future leadership?

Road to ruin

From: Allan Ramsay, Radcliffe.

IN the short term, pollution from motor vehicles is linked to 25,000 premature UK deaths a year, and some 2,000 road deaths.

In the long term, every ‘speed freak’, and indeed every lawless or killer driver, should be seen as a step towards the end of the world, and every pedestrian and cyclist, a step to saving it.

We’re united against terrorism and hate. Uniting against lawless drivers is surely just as critical.