Sir, – In your story, GP recruitment crisis leaves several Fife practices at risk (May 12), I noted with concern the reported comment of Fife Health and Social Care Partnership that “the number of doctors prepared to operate the service was too low to ensure patient safety”.
I would like to reassure your readers that GPs, not only in Fife but across Scotland, would be prepared to operate out of hours services if they had the time and the capacity to do so.
The reasons for GPs’ lack of availability have been well documented and lie both in their increasing workload during routine hours and in the reduction in the number of whole time equivalent GPs. They are already working beyond capacity and the health service would fall over were it not for the goodwill of GPs and their determination to serve patients as best they can.
Many GPs don’t finish their work for “in hours” services until after the “out of hours” period has begun (often long after 6.30pm). This can make it impossible to contribute to their local out of hours services.
Research from the BMA and RCGP has shown levels of burnout among doctors are worryingly high as they struggle to see an ever-increasing number of patients with ever increasing needs. Some GPs realise that taking on a further shift might not be safe for them or for patients.
We agree it is essential that patients are able to access the urgent primary care they need whatever time they need it and it is vital that we have enough GPs available to work with professional clinical colleagues to provide this service. We all need to work together to ensure GP out of hours services are recognised as a fundamental part of the NHS providing urgent care for patients when their practice is closed.
It is unhelpful that your readers have been made to consider GPs as “unprepared” to serve their patients’ needs when the opposite is the case. GPs should be supported and valued whether they work in or out of hours, not criticised when the services they are trying to support are struggling.
Dr Carey Lunan,
Chairwoman,
Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland.
NHS relies on its people
Sir, – It will soon be 70 years since the National Health Service began. In spite of the problems we sometimes hear about regarding the NHS we should give thanks for the commitment patients have received from doctors, nurses and all staff during these years.
There is no way we can compare the NHS in 1948 to the service as it is today. The advances that have been made in medicine over the years have been great. However, we have to accept new equipment and procedures in hospitals and surgeries require increased funding to provide them.
I have four relatives in the medical profession. They are all in it because they want to care for their patients to the best of their ability. I am sure this applies to all staff in the NHS.
Thomas Michie.
Main Street,
Kinglassie.
A stand against ‘squaddies’
Sir, – Although I agree with some of the content in Dr Cameron’s letter about the UK Government’s refusal to consider amnesties for soldiers who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I have to say he is totally misinformed.
The doctor says squaddies were placed on the frontline. This is not true. There has never been and never will be a squaddie on any frontline.
The word “squaddie” is used when a serviceman or woman is in squad training. On completion of said training he or she becomes a soldier, sailor or airman/woman.
Squaddie is an overused but offensive term for, in my case, a soldier and if anyone uses it in my company I soon put them right as to the term they should use.
When an apprentice completes his training he is called a journeyman.
The word “apprentice” is no longer used. The same applies to a recruit under squad training, when his training is complete and he becomes, for example, a soldier. I hope this has explained my anger at being called a squaddie.
RM Scott.
Hawthorn Street,
Methil.
Resist the Brexit power grab
Sir, – Oh for the heady days of the lead-up to the Independence referendum.
Who can forget the impassioned pleas of then-PM David Cameron imploring Scotland to Vote No and remain in the UK where we would see concrete change through greater powers being devolved to Holyrood?
Fast forward to now and we see the greatest threat to the Scottish Parliament and devolution ever mounted by a UK Government as, under the guise of Brexit, it attempts to restrict the powers of Holyrood.
David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, whose job it is to promote and protect the very foundations of devolution, intends to completely ignore the majority will of Holyrood’s refusal to agree legislative consent for the Brexit Withdrawal Bill and proceed with the UK Government’s Brexit legislation.
Donald Dewar must be spinning in his grave at the way this UK Government is treating the Scottish Parliament.
Regardless of any political persuasion, or if you have ever had a free prescription, free university education, or been treated by the Scottish NHS, now is the time to make your voice heard. If we do not, the outcome is too scary to even contemplate.
I, for one, am sick and tired of being patronised and fooled by Westminster. Enough is enough, unless you want more meaningless and empty platitudes next time an independence referendum comes around. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me, as the old adage says.
Graeme Finnie.
Albert Street,
Blairgowrie.
Constitutional collision course
Sir, – Nicola Sturgeon might very well be right to seek a more flexible approach on post-Brexit immigration policy (Sturgeon immigration call, May 15).
Yet to secure agreement with the UK Government would require a degree of mutual trust in this policy area, which is to say the least highly charged.
Ever since the EU referendum result, our First Minister has been putting herself and her government at odds with the UK Government, seemingly setting out to find grounds for sufficient grievance to justify triggering a full blown constitutional crisis. Of course, intermittently, the spectre of an independence referendum is raised, just to ensure the UK Government does not lose sight of the end game. It is perfectly understandable that the UK Government might be reluctant to get into discussions about a flexible immigration policy when it is so obvious that anything they say might be used against them.
While Nicola Sturgeon will try to portray this as further grounds for grievance, many will see the true cause of mistrust being her insistence in choosing confrontation over cooperation at every stage of her dealings with the UK.
Keith Howell.
White Moss,
West Linton.
Fuel for the fumes wardens
Sir, – Inverclyde Council has asked the Scottish Government for permission to issue fixed penalty notices to motorists who keep their engines idling whilst in stationary traffic.
Anti-vehicle councils are sure to follow.
This will be regarded as another cash cow for councils which already delight in hammering the motorist with parking and bus lane infringements.
Will councils deliberately introduce bottlenecks and alter traffic light settings?
Who is going to decide what vehicles have their engines running “unnecessarily”?
Will the “fumes” wardens have targets to achieve?
I remember when litter and dog wardens patrolled, or rather strutted, the streets but made little difference to litter and dog filth but cost council taxpayers millions of pounds.
This latest “initiative” is doomed to be an expensive failure.
Clark Cross.
Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
My Hmmm… to Dundee
Sir, – May I, as a born and bred Dundonian of some 85 years, make a comment on the transformation, during my lifetime, of many well loved parts of “Auld Dundee”, with particular reference to the “masterminding” of the waterfront? I shall keep it short.
Hmmm…
Ian Kennedy.
Gray Den, Liff,
Dundee.
