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SIR – Given the abysmal record of massive waste caused by failed attempts to digitise patient records, the new Health Secretary’s plans will probably suffer the same fate (“Unified NHS patient records will save lives, says Health Secretary”, report, June 1).
That all clinicians are to have access to their patients’ records, no matter where in the country they are receiving treatment, is commendable, but the first, abandoned attempt lasted a decade and cost billions. I feel that the point of no return was passed years ago and that such an ambition is simply impossible, knowing that every hospital and GP would need to be fully involved and committed.
With approximately 1,000 NHS hospitals in the land, the suggested benefits of the Health Secretary’s plans are comparatively minor. Saving 6,000 hospital admissions is virtually no ambition at all. Finally, the Health Secretary suggests an annual saving of £20m. Perhaps, with such mediocre aims, he should concentrate his efforts on reducing the £3.1bn that the NHS spent on negligence payouts, as indicated in figures released last year.
Malvern Harper
Ripley, Derbyshire
SIR – Set against the NHS budget, a saving of £20m is simply a rounding error. What the Health Secretary omits to mention is the actual cost of developing and supporting unified patient records, something that I think is very important.
Des Morgan
Swindon, Wiltshire
SIR – Here in Spain there is an effective patient database. Our health cards give access to all our patient information wherever we are in Spain, and all chemists can swipe the card to get instant access to prescriptions.
Why doesn’t Britain consider such a system rather than wasting billions developing its own?
Jane Eyles
Mahón, Menorca, Spain
SIR – The latest plans for patients in England once again show that we no longer have a national health service, as was envisaged back in 1948, but four disparate and dysfunctional healthcare systems offering a range of services available in some places but not in others.
Since devolution, the devolved countries’ health services have gone their own way. In Wales, where a local health service existed well before 1948, patients are now faced with long waiting lists, poor ambulance response times, long queues in emergency departments, crumbling buildings and almost non-existent state-funded dental and eye care.
The fanfare of announcements about more funds for the NHS in England not only disappoints the populations of the devolved countries but angers them too, as they see their own systems falling further into decline for lack of investment.
Stuart Geddes
Monmouth
PFI folly
SIR – I see that the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is looking at the possibility of resurrecting private finance initiatives (PFIs) to fund future national infrastructure schemes.
Does she not remember what a disaster it was? PFIs were typically 40-70 per cent more expensive than public funding. They saddled the taxpayer with billions in debts and the effects are still being felt today.
Grasping at straws won’t solve our infrastructure crisis; it will only lead to far more unaffordable debt.
Robbie James
Barnstaple, Devon
SIR – Britain’s poor infrastructure (Leading Article, May 31) is an indictment of British political incompetence as well as our superficiality.
The chaos at Heathrow shows the urgent need not just for an expanded airport but a new airport, to provide diversity of logistics. We must begin construction of the Thames Estuary Airport, official plans for which go back as far as 1971. During the 2010s we had a serious opportunity to get the ball rolling at last. This faltered only because Boris Johnson was an enthusiast. As soon as some wit dubbed the scheme “Boris Island” no one ever took it seriously again.
Robert Frazer
Salford, Lancashire
Sturgeon’s recall
SIR – It should come as no surprise that Nicola Sturgeon was not aware of her husband’s embezzlement of SNP funds. This is the same person who, in 2021, in front of the Holyrood committee investigating “a malicious and concerted attempt to damage the reputation of Alex Salmond”, managed to have no recollection of events on 50 occasions in response to questions from MSPs.
It must be quite unusual for someone in a senior position to have such a lack of curiosity.
Ken Sharp
Amersham, Buckinghamshire
Preventative burning
SIR – In the battle to stop Britain burning, the Government claims that winter burns of vegetation damage peat (report, May 30).
Yet research found that winter burns cause “no below-ground organic matter loss” as the “underlying soils were not subjected to high temperatures”. Defra’s scientific illiteracy matters as it led it to its effective ban on all preventative burns over deep peat.
Last year, this resulted in the disastrous fire on Fylingdales Moor. Vast carbon stores, built over centuries, were utterly destroyed. Labour MPs in rural constituencies are nervous about where the smoke and flames will reach this summer.
Ian Gregory
London SW1
Charity begins at home
SIR – The comical dispute on Mount Snowdon over charity walkers allegedly queue-jumping in order to reach the summit (report, May 30) is an example of “leisure fundraising”. This involves being sponsored to do something that one would happily do anyway, to raise cash for a good cause.
In this spirit, I will be relaxing in my garden on multiple occasions this summer, and I invite your readers to show their support by sending a generous donation directly to a charity of their choice.
Kevin Duffy
Manchester
Class and party politics
SIR – While I agree with Robert Tombs’s analysis (Comment, June 1) of why support is declining for traditional political parties, there is another factor involved: the changing role of social class.
Labour used to be a working-class party with some middle-class support. The Tories are (or were) a middle-class party with some working-class support. Rising standards of living have rendered these profiles out-of-date. Consequently, many who once voted Labour or Conservative are turning to parties with a single-issue or ideological message.
If we are unlucky, this may result in governing coalitions forming between parties that have too little in common to provide stability. If we are lucky, political leaders may come to the fore who are sufficiently skilled to succeed.
In any case, as Professor Tombs points out, we cannot go on with extra-parliamentary government.
Anthony Pick
Newbury, Berkshire
Trail hunting ban
SIR – Charles Moore’s article on the Government’s consultation on trail hunting (“Labour’s ban on trail hunting is dangerous legislative overreach”, May 30), while setting out his defence of the trail-hunting community, fails to mention the major indictment against this practice.
As Channel 4 has shown in its reports on the subject, irrefutable evidence exists – in the form of extensive video footage – of illegal fox hunting taking place under the guise of trail hunting. On scores of occasions, barbaric hunting has been captured by hunt saboteurs’ drones and has led to a number of prosecutions.
It is this continuation of fox hunting behind the smokescreen of trail hunting, involving packs across the country, that will eventually lead to an outright ban on the so-called trail hunting community.
Christopher Devine
Salisbury, Wiltshire
Resigned response
SIR – A Dutch friend, whose English was almost perfect, was fascinated by my response of “If you insist” one day when I was offered something (“Questionable answer”, Letters, May 30).
She thought it hilarious and thereafter used it at every opportunity.
Brian Esson
Cambridge
Which county takes the cider-making crown?
SIR – I’m so pleased that John Sturgis (“My round-Britain hunt for the golden apples of the sun”, Saturday, May 23) enjoyed his “cyder” from The Newt hotel in Somerset, which makes a lovely high-end one.
It’s a pity that he missed the abundance and variety on offer at the British Cider Championships – part of the Royal Bath and West Show – last weekend, with more than 500 entries and a “people’s choice” (£1) tasting bar staffed by the cider makers. We decided that the best-in-class fruit cider, made in Somerset, would be an ideal pairing with a cream tea.
Wassail; be well.
Caroline Doherty
Crewkerne, Somerset
Parents’ duty to prepare children for work
SIR – In the discussion about Alan Milburn’s report on youth unemployment, which alleges that there has been “a whole system failure” to prepare young people for adult life, there has been relatively little emphasis on the role of parents.
When I was a child, it was a parent who got me up and sent me off to school, supervised my homework and restricted my TV viewing. It was a parent who accompanied me to my first Saturday job interview, made sure I was at my job every week and stopped giving me pocket-money. And it was a parent who, having seen me through university (a first in the family), told me that it was time for me to earn my own living.
Surely basic life skills such as discipline, self-sufficiency, emotional resilience, financial awareness and ambition should be taught at home, not sub-contracted to already over-burdened teachers and health professionals.
Denise Backhouse
Alton, Hampshire
SIR – Is it not pertinent that the age at which the state pension becomes payable is being raised to save the Government money? People are working longer, and jobs aren’t opening up for younger generations.
Might it be better to pay pensions at an earlier age to free up roles, resulting in less being spent on benefits for those unable to get jobs? Presumably the Treasury has done the maths.
Peter Senior
Cambridge
SIR – Employment opportunities for young people have been severely restricted by government initiatives including National Insurance and minimum wage increases, as well as impractical rules imposed on employers. The Government is considering new and no doubt expensive measures to improve access to work. It would be easier to take away the measures that are preventing such access in the first place.
Les Bratt
Cleeve Prior, Worcestershire
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The NHS’s digital failures cast doubt on plans to unify patient records
Plus: PFI folly; class and party politics; Nicola Sturgeon’s recall; the trail hunting ban; and which county makes the best cider?