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Fiddling with numbers

Changing the A&E targets (SA, June 15) will not solve anything.It would only be a case of fiddling the figures to make the statistics appear better than they really are; and so enable managers and politicians to portray them in a more positive way.

This is not just a problem at GWH; it is a national problem. There are several causes, all of which are related, which have been building up over a number of years. In spite of repeated warnings from the medical profession, politicians and senior management in the NHS have refused to face the facts and come clean with the public about them.

Basically, the problems can be summarised as follows: There is a shortage of frontline professional staff – doctors (both in general practice and hospitals), nurses, physios and others. So there need to be proper incentives to retain present staff and recruit new staff.

There is a shortage of acute hospital beds – too many of which are occupied by bed-blockers, whose discharge is delayed because of inadequate staff and beds to provide care in the community, either at home or in residential or nursing homes.

Too much money is spent (and wasted?) on unnecessary and burdensome bureaucracy.

The four-hour target was introduced because it was considered (rightly) that no patient should need to spend more than four hours in any A&E department. This still applies.

Malcolm Morrison, Retired Orthopaedic Surgeon, Prospect Hill

Saved by Mossad

In response to John Stooke’s comments on Boris Johnson, I would say that it is very easy to tear someone down rather than build them up.

What possible benefit is there in calling a fellow human being a windbag and a buffoon? Instead of denigrating a man’s character, should he become PM surely we must pray for him that he will serve his country well as we are commanded to do in the Bible.

Have we not all done things in the past that we are not particularly proud of? I know that I have, so I am very well aware that when I point a finger at someone there are three fingers pointing back at me.

Regarding Peter Smith’s recent letter about President Trump and the demonstrations against him, as far as I know President Trump has not committed atrocities against his own people unlike Assad unleashing chemical weapons, or Putin indiscriminately bombing civilians in Syria, or repressing his own people like Xi of China who has been here on a state visit, strangely the streets of London were devoid of demonstrations.

Many of these same demonstrators that vilify the President of the US will march through the streets of London chanting grotesque lies about Israel, it seems that it is a rite of passage these days for the left to vilify Israel and the US and it does not matter at all one jot if this vilification is built on fabrication and falsehood.

The word Hypocrisy comes to mind. Recently it has come to light that the Israeli Intelligence Agency Mossad helped to foil a terror attack in the UK in 2015 by the Iran backed Hezbollah that would have undoubtedly resulted in many casualties, and let us also remember that the Hezbollah flag is prevalent at many of these marches.

I wonder if these same people who march through the streets of London with such vehement hatred for Israel were to know that the nation they so despise played a major part in foiling a terror attack that saved countless lives, would they have the integrity and decency to at least acknowledge that fact?

Steve Jack, Parsonage Court, Highworth