Sir, – By any standards the campaign to keep an out-of-hours service at Glenrothes Hospital in 2012/13 was a success for local democracy.
There were two reasons it proved fruitful.
One was the commitment and energy of local activists and medical practitioners. The other was that, at the time, there were elected Fife Health Board members who were able to overturn the closure proposal at a board meeting, albeit by the narrowest of margins.
Those elected members may have gone but there is still a need for vigilance to prevent the temporary closure from becoming permanent (“Fears out-of-hours services at hospitals could be lost for good”, The Courier, April 6).
Senior health board officials – some very strong supporters of closure five years ago – still need to be held to account.
Questions do need to be asked about the reasons for the staff shortages at the out-of-hours services throughout Fife.
Local MSP Jenny Gilruth must press both health board chairwoman Tricia Marwick and Scottish Health Secretary Shona Robison to ensure the matter is dealt with fairly.
No doubt the facilities at Victoria Hospital for out-of-hours treatment are very good, but the arguments about access, transport and resources were gone over at length when the viability of the local centres was discussed half a decade ago.
Ms Robison has already had to swallow her pride and take action over what has happened at Tayside Health Board.
In the interest of local democracy she should keep a close eye on Fife officials and how they handle the region’s out-of hours services.
Bob Taylor.
24 Shiel Court,
Glenrothes.
NHS bosses weren’t wrong
Sir,– As a grateful present in-patient in PRI, I am not so sure that, in using charity-donated money to defray IT equipment costs, the NHS managers were wholly wrong.
Although the notion of using the donated funds for “children’s toys” and dayrooms sounds useful, children already have their own toys and there seems to be plenty of space here for visitors and certainly for patients.
The hospital and GP computer facilities, directly vital in helping patients’ management by enhancing both detailed records’ availability and intra- and inter-hospital communications have now been very effectively developed here.
Thus, in directly assisting greatly improved patient management, the money was well spent, in ways in which the generous donors would surely have understood and approved.
Dr Charles Wardrop. 111 Viewlands Rd West, Perth.
Sugary drinks can save lives
Sir, – As a type 1 diabetic of 61 years (and still standing!) I agree totally with Catriona Morrice’s letter in The Courier (“Sugar tax and diabetics”, April 6).
A can of Irn Bru or Coca Cola full of sugar is just what is needed if I am “hypo” – the dangerous state of having a low blood sugar. There are many of us dependent on sugary drinks’ life-saving properties.
Kathleen Perry.
9 Queen’s Ave,
Perth.
Time to leave subsidised SSE
Sir, – Stronelairg a 66-turbine onshore wind farm near Fort Augustus in the Highlands, has now been connected to the Scottish national grid and is the last SSE development to benefit from the Renewables Obligation (RO) subsidy which, of course, is added to electricity bills.
Paul Cooley, head of generation development at Perth-based utility giant SSE, is obviously worried that these eye-watering subsidies are no longer available, so he is demanding the UK Government allows onshore wind to compete in the Contracts for Difference auctions.
But these are just subsidies by another name, so obviously wind farms cannot be built without subsidies.
Paul Cooley had the audacity to tell Scottish Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse to “man up” and instruct local planning authorities to give more consideration to national energy policy than local objectors, and demands Mr Wheelhouse tell them to “shut up and go away”.
Well I will go away – from the SSE –and trust other SSE customers will do the same.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
Speed humps make no sense
Sir, – I live in Largoward where Fife Council is turning our main road from Fife’s “premier racetrack” into some sort of obstacle course.
To slow traffic they have installed a series of mini-humps designed, I assume, to slow traffic as it passes through the village.
It is true some cars are reducing speed, often to around 10 to 15mph, whilst a great many larger cars, vans, trucks, lorries and buses are not slowing at all, as they can easily straddle the humps as if they are not there.
I watched with great amusement one low-slung, expensive sports car driving in the middle of the road so as to climb two humps simultaneously to avoid causing damage to the underside of his vehicle by driving over a single hump on his side of the road.
On entering the village there are new signs jutting into the road warning drivers that oncoming traffic has the right of way.
I hope Fife Council has plenty of replacement signs because I fully expect these signs will be regularly hit by passing vehicles.
When the humps were covered by the recent snow they became, not a speed reduction initiative, but a possible cause of accidents with drivers not seeing them due to the snow and causing their cars to be deflected off-course.
I fully accept speed reduction through the village is necessary but the council’s answer, to me, is plain barmy.
A much better, easier and cheaper method would have been to reduce the speed limit to 20mph simply by changing the speed limit signs in the same way that exists in Upper Largo.
It works very well there and would work equally well through Largoward.
Perhaps if the speed limit had been reduced to 20mph in this way, the council could then have afforded to include Cupar Road where traffic still regularly enters the village at speeds well in excess of the 30mph limit.
Harry Key.
20 Mid Street,
Largoward.
What about the red deer culling?
Sir, – With regard to Jim Crumley’s column “Protect the mountain hare”, April 3, on the hare culling video.
Although I have nothing to do with grouse moors or hare shooting, the knee-jerk response by the First Minister and many others to the video shows their lack of knowledge of hill management and rural life.
Others can comment on grouse/hare shooting and the reasons for hare culling but my question for Jim Crumley is why is he quick to criticise the shooting/land owning fraternity, but has nothing to say about the Government, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Forestry Commission (FC) and other forestry companies condoning the “mass slaughter” of red deer (sika/roe), out of season, after the rut, in the winter at their weakest, on FC forests (government land).
The worst thing for me is hearing about the shooting of pregnant hinds well out of season.
I would really like to hear the First Minister’s response to the licensed (by SNH) culling of these pregnant hinds out of season – pictures on Facebook if you care to look!
It strikes me as double standards to get hysterical about a video of a legal hare shoot, yet bang on about too many deer, and turn a blind eye to what exactly goes on in the field.
Are people aware of the practices involved in culling (slaughtering) large numbers of our “iconic” red deer all year round?
Bill Cowie.
The Isle of Rona,
By Portree,
Isle of Skye.
