Today”s correspondents discuss their opinions on supermarkets, NHS standards, Scottish independence, and a Church of Scotland vote correction.
Care of elderly patients worse than animalsSir, With reference to another spate of horror stories regarding the care of elderly in NHS hospitals, both north and south of the border, I cannot but wonder if we should now get England’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) on the case.
The RSPCA five freedoms are: freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury and disease; freedom to behave normally; freedom from fear and distress.
In my opinion, the adoption of these freedoms would help to restore proper standards of care within the NHS.
There should and can be no excuse for not providing the right care for all patients at all times.
Caring and compassion cannot be learned from a textbook and neither can they be taught.
When I was involved in nursing, I admit that I tended to employ those who readily demonstrated a caring and compassionate attitude rather than those with obvious academic ability.
Some of the latter, especially in difficult and distressing nursing and clinical situations demonstrated that they possessed hearts of stone and were generally emotionally cold, aloof and disinterested.
Caring will only really change within the NHS and elsewhere when those who possess or have the inherent ability to care and to give compassionate care are empowered.
In this instance the NHS does not need to modernise to improve all it needs is to return to its fundamental principles of caring and compassion.
Finally, I would advise that in suggesting the adoption of the five RSPCA freedoms for animals, I am in not in anyway advocating or suggesting that euthanasia becomes the norm for human beings.
Ronald N. Macdonald. 28 Church Street,Carnoustie.Store benefits for PitlochrySir, It is strange logic indeed for Dr Charles Wardrop (27 May) to approve of supermarkets in “the right place” which presumably is Perth where he lives and not Pitlochry which he visits.
Surely, that is for the people of Pitlochry to decide. Sainsbury’s held consultation sessions in the town hall which were well attended and well received by people from Pitlochry and the surrounding area.
Staff, who were on hand to answer queries, seemed to be highly delighted with the enthusiasm and positive support of local people.
How it will have a negative effect on tourism to the area I am at a loss to understand.
Indeed, I believe that Sainsbury’s have agreed to close on the highland games day.
The Co-op has been operating a supermarket here for some time without any detrimental effect on tourism.
Dr Wardrop’s argument might be: is the Co-op not enough for a small town? To which the answer could be: why do so many local people drive all the way to Perth to do a large weekly shop and, until recently, why was there a dedicated evening weekly bus service from here to the major Perth supermarkets?
Perhaps he should dwell on the positives. Sainsbury’s have held meetings with local food producers from whom they have agreed to source food supplies, unemployment will be reduced; people will not have to travel to Perth, thus reducing their high motoring costs, not to mention their carbon footprint and the project is well away from the centre of the town so will not contribute to the already congested central area.
John R. Murdoch. 4 Aldour Gardens, Pitlochry.Scandinavia can show waySir. You published an article (May 30) relating to the views of Dr John Kay on the matter of Scottish independence.
It is clear from this piece that Dr. Kay does not believe there are any significant advantages for Scotland in becoming an independent country again. Fair enough.
However, if that were really the case, can he explain why other countries of a similar size are not queuing up to be “taken over” by their larger neighbours? For the avoidance of doubt, I refer to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and New Zealand.
There are many others but it seemed best to consider some Nordic countries and, for the sake of geographical balance, a small antipodean nation as well.
(Cllr) Alan Grant.Deputy leader,Perth and Kinross SNP group.Voting in Kirk assemblySir, I am contacting you about your story (May 26) on the decision taken by the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly in relation to the Special Commission on Same Sex Relationships and the Ministry.
I want to draw to your attention a couple of errors in fact.
For the avoidance of doubt, the vote was 351 to 294. There is no way to register an abstention at the General Assembly so your statement that there were 208 abstentions is untrue.
In fact, we only have 742 commissioners registered for this year’s General Assembly.
At any one time we never have all the commissioners present for a number of reasons so you could not even claim that the 97 “missing” commissioners had abstained.
Secondly, we did not have 239 commissioners dissenting. Commissioners had the opportunity to register dissent on two parts of the overall deliverance on the day with 119 registering dissent on one part and 120 on another. As you would imagine, this was largely the same people on both parts so you cannot add that figure together to come up with 239.
I appreciate this is a reasonably pedantic point to raise but it does give a completely different slant to the figures presented.
Stuart R. Wilson.Head of communications,The Church of Scotland121 George Street,Edinburgh.
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