THIS weeks Redditch Standard letters.
I WRITE regarding all of the problems at the Alex at the moment.
Three years ago I wrote to Persimmon Homes about the amount of homes they were building on East Brockhill and what was being done about the traffic in this area increasing substantially?
But mostly I wanted to know if there were any plans to build another GP surgery to supply the thousands more people buying these homes.
Their reply was that they give a certain amount of money to the council to enable a new GP surgery to be set up, but that they don’t know if this money was being used to do just that.
Obviously this money has been spent elsewhere! A total disgrace.
I knew then it would eventually be crisis in the health service in Redditch as it is certainly the case now countrywide.
The Conservative government should have prepared for this and helped the social care problem, which has helped to cause this, when Boris Johnson promised this almost three years ago.
Those in government who have private medical insurance have absolutely no thought for most of the country and no thought for our health.
Sandra Griffin
READING your front page article, Redditch Standard, Janusry 6, I find it interesting the general opinion seems to be that the NHS needs more money.
It’s time we realised this is not the case.
Our NHS has a huge budget per head of population yet fails badly compared to other countries’ health services.
Our NHS employs approximately 1.2million people, many of the recently highlighted problems have occurred over Christmas through lack of duty staff.
My 98-year-old mother-in-law suffered a fall on Boxing Day, was admitted to hospital but was then sent home simply because not enough staff were on duty.
In any job that requires a 24-hour service, staff have to be prepared to cover holidays, weekends and evenings, if not quite simply they are in the wrong job.
The state described of the A&E at the Alex is down to staff quite simply not doing their job and it’s time we faced up to the fact.
We can see everyday in most hospitals the 9am to 5pm day clinics have a dearth of staff, yet weekends and night time patients are left to suffer. In any business in the private sector the customers are important, in the NHS and I’m afraid to say it most public services today, the customers are not considered and it’s all about the staff.
It’s time our government stops throwing good money after bad and takes a firm grip of the NHS and other public services – give them a good shake up.
At some point, we the general public may have to bite the bullet for a period, but we need to say: ‘those who want to work in healthcare step forward, those that don’t leave’.
Many of those demanding more money are already earning upwards of £30,000 per year and we hear of staff earning six-figure salaries. Is this badly paid? I think not.
Time to stop thinking that squandering more taxpayers’ money will fix anything, it will not
Mike Smith
Studley
READING the letters last week, there appears to be much despondency over the library, hospital and cemetery, but I don’t think there need be.
The library is due to move 200 yards down the road, not half-a-mile as I read recently.
The gradient between the two buildings is very gentle, of course if you are approaching from the Smallwood area it will be nearer.
Any archives will be moved along with the books although I believe most are already in Worcester.
What is to be done with the space taken by the library building is interesting.
If the proposal for the square won’t fit into the allocated space, according to the letters, they could make it slightly smaller.
The council secured a £16million loan for improvements to the town centre. This money has to be spent by a certain date. It would be disappointing if we couldn’t agree how to spend it and lost the money.
The cemetery in Ipsley Meadows will be tastefully designed for visitors to sit and reflect, the meadows are just a small area of the 900 acres of Arrow Valley Country Park. There will still be 880 acres for people to continue their activities within the park.
Where there is cause for concern is the hospital situation with patients having to travel to Worcester for procedures and long waiting times in A&E.
We know the NHS is under pressure and we know the staff at the Alex to a wonderful job.
These are nationwide problems and we know our MP, writing on the same page,is doing all she can to improve the situation.
Malcolm Jones
I AM not the sort of person to have visceral reactions to politics, but there was something different about seeing Rachel Maclean and her Tory team in Headless Cross campaigning on the NHS.
I don’t exaggerate when I say i turned my stomach.
Her party has decimated the NHS. Locally, Tory ‘reforms’ have seen the Alex stripped of one vital service after another. A situation she repeatedly blames NHS staff for.
Nationally what the Tories have done to the NHS is a crime. Waiting lists are at an all time high, GP appointments are hard to get, A&E services are crumbling, patients are dying on trollies for lack of beds and nurses are being forced to use foodbanks.
Meanwhile it’s now clear that during Covid her Party treated NHS budgets as a piggy bank to be raided on behalf of Tory Party donors.
Seeing a Tory team on my own doorstep attempting yet again to gaslight the public made me very angry indeed.
The NHS is one of this country’s greatest achievements. The Tories have always opposed its very existence.
If Ms Maclean knocks on my door I shall tell her that to her face.
I urge other folk in Headless Cross to do the same.
Ian Woodall
Headless Cross
