3 minute read
Letters
Appeal to locate fall helpers
I HAD a fall outside the old Post Office on Friday, October 28, and two young mothers with their babies in pushchairs came to my assistance and stayed with me until the ambulance arrived.
They would not leave me until they saw I was taken care of.
In my state at the time, although I know they were sisters, I didn’t ask their names and addresses.
Could I, through your column, ask that they contact me please on 01929 289337.
Thanking you in anticipation.
FRANCES TIMBERLAKE
AT last we have something politicians from opposing parties can agree on, along with two-thirds of the public according to recent polls: the urgent need for a general election.
Dorset Labour’s Greg Williams has put the case for this and Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope has expressed the same view elsewhere.
Yes, they have different reasons and hope for different results from an election, but isn’t that how democracy works?
Everyone knows that we don’t have a presidential system, i.e. we elect a party not a leader.
But everyone also knows that our system was never meant to produce three leaders in as many months, constant turmoil and endless U-turns, all with no opportunity whatsoever for the public to give their verdict.
An election held next year would give the current government enough time to show us, the electorate, what
This stunning picture of Wareham Forest was captured by reader Jeff Laidler, who is also a member of the Dorset Camera Club. Send your Purbeck pictures to ed@purbeckgazette.co.uk
their new policies are, and go some way towards restoring the global reputation we once had for democracy and fairness.
LUCY NANKIVELL
Thank Goodness For The Royals
Thank goodness we’ve got The Royals; They’re worth all our troubles and toils; They sit at our nation’s peak; Even though they’re part German part Greek; And take all our billions in tax; By posing beneath Union Jacks.
What else would we do with that wealth? Just waste it upon National Health? Or fritter it all on the poor? On charity cases galore? No, that’s when our British blood boils; Thank goodness we’ve got The Royals!
With apologies to Royalists, but this is a subject which is not given much attention.
MARTIN HOBDELL Swanage
‘I am now just an NHS number’
FURTHER to the report by the House of Commons Health Committee, which found that patients no longer have relationships with their GPs, I can indeed confirm that I am no longer a person – just a number on a long practice list.
It seems my needs do not matter, my lack of a mobile phone and ‘apps’ make me a nuisance and I am put off seeking medical help if at all possible.
I have several medical problems but have never bothered doctors unless urgent. I was raised to believe that you only made an appointment with a GP if symptoms were serious.
My recent experience has led me to the conclusion that I should remain quiet and at home self-medicating until I reach a point where I cannot continue and then go to an overworked accident and emergency department in a crisis, possibly not to recover.
That should free up more practice space and, as I am only a number, it will matter little to anyone except my family and friends.
Speaking to others I have found they too are experiencing similar problems with these ‘IT solutions’, from appointments to repeat prescriptions.
What a sad state our once fabulous health service is in.
NAME, EMAIL SUPPLIED
‘Budget cuts will affect all of us’
WITH the new Budget coming, or an Autumn Statement as it is known, I think it is shocking how little people seem to know about how it will affect them – and the services they use, often on a daily basis.
I’m sure these letters pages will be full of complaints when bus services are cut, potholes are not filled and grass verges not trimmed, without realising that it’s because of a massive cut in funding from central government.
We seem to accept many cuts when they sound complicated but fail to equate that with the impact it has locally further down the line.
ANDY BARTON
