The week begins with mixed views on John J Marshall, support for athletics clubs, the NHS’ faults and problems with green energy.
Youngsters need support now, not just in future
Sir,-I read with interest your report in which the Scottish Athletics chief calls for patience.
I agree that more support should be given to clubs, but why in the future? What is wrong with now?
I did not feel there was much encouragement for today’s teenagers who compete with great enthusiasm. Nor was there praise for the wonderful work done by coaches and clubs at the moment.
I am always impressed by the amount of time and energy coaches give to their club members, sometimes under far from ideal conditions. I realise that, perhaps, you only quoted part of the speech.
The Scottish multi-events took place recently and you carried no report on that, though three young athletes at least from Tayside gained medals.
Let’s give them all the backing they need.
Winnie Jorgensen.Loanend Cottage,Newton of Arbirlot,by Arbroath.
Take a look at positives
Sir,-You sought comment on the state of the NHS in your issue of July 28, but the faults you cited are all administrative and not medical.
Closure of a ward, the ignorance of surgery receptionists (bad training) and “dirty wards” have little or nothing to do with medical matters. These all stem from management decisions and are, in fact, more to do with bureaucracy and cost-cutting measures.
I am a volunteer simulated patient at the medical school clinical skills centre in Ninewells. The students, both medical and nursing, are dedicated people who want to help patients, not make their lives worse.
They are trained by highly skilled and motivated staff whose aim in life is improvement of care. Not the opposite. I do not believe that the students change when they qualify. This is the upside of the NHS, not the bad press which is more common. Negative stories are seemingly more newsworthy than positive stories.
We all have vastly improved lives and life expectancy due to our very excellent health service. My own limited experience as a real patient bears that out.
If there are shortfalls then I would suggest that investigation would reveal that the underlying cause is down to management (or lack of it) and bad administration which I know frustrates good medical and non-medical staff and drives them away from promising careers. We are the losers in this situation.
Let’s hear about the lives saved and bettered beyond measure due to the NHS the envy of the world until it became management- and target-driven.
I spoke recently to a member of the medical staff who was about to return home to the USA after two years at Ninewells. She could not speak highly enough of her admiration for the NHS. She knew that if the American people had first-hand knowledge of the NHS then they would embrace it with open arms. Well done NHS.
Neil Anderson.4 Regent Place,West Ferry,Dundee.
Should not just provoke
Sir,-I buy The Courier because I like its responsible style of reporting news and views. Last week’s midweek column by JJ Marshall was a sad departure from that.
Whether one agrees with his comments or not, they should be “thought-provoking” not simply provoking.
Ian Smith.23 Kintillo Place,Bridge Of Earn,Perth.
JJ’s column was excellent
Sir,-What an excellent column by John J Marshall covering all the unexplained and unanswered questions in relation to the release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
No doubt “lessons have been learned,” but no one ever seems to pass the exams!
John McDonald.14 Rosebery Court,Kirkcaldy.
Will it be any cheaper?
Sir,-When history writes about the worst crime in Scotland, our kids and grandchildren will be able to say, “I was there!”
Foreign nationals and our own collaborating Scottish Government are setting out to do what even Adolf Hitler was unable to fulfil the subjugation of the Scottish people and rape of the Scottish countryside, all under the name of green energy.
I have lived in California and have seen first-hand the result of governments putting fuel companies before their population.
Drive down any street and you hear the constant squeak of oil pumps hidden behind hedges at the bottom of residents’ gardens.
At least you can hide an oil pump a 100-foot tower and blades are just a wee bit harder to hide.
At the end of the day we have foreign-owned companies, raping our landscape with foreign-owned turbines, taking Scottish-generated power away through foreign-owned cables.
Do you think your electric bills will be any cheaper? Not a penny.
Joe Cochrane.Springbank,Kennoway.
Too many chiefs now
Sir,-It is not just the NHS that is being strangled by bureaucracy you only have to look at government departments all the way down to the local town hall.
The computer age was supposed to lessen the amount of paperwork, instead it has quadrupled the amount of staff required to administer it.
Why do we need so many managers and under-managers etc? Not a week passes without someone in Dundee complaining about the state of our parks and ponds, yet Dundee has two parks departments, two parks managers, five or six assistant parks managers and heaven only knows how many supervisors.
In simple terms, too many chiefs, not enough indians.
W. Duthie.25 St Fillans Road,Dundee.
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