YOUR VIEWS: Health services need to up their game
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A reader on 'shameful negligence' of the ill. Do you agree? Plus a query about a Prince Andrew name check and more on the Andrea Bocelli gig.
Health services need to up their game
For some time now, countless numbers of unwell and ill people have been left angry and frustrated, rightly so, with medical and healthcare services – both locally and nationally.
The unfolding stories make for appalling and shocking reading. NHS Scotland should be ashamed of themselves – they ought to be named and shamed in every geographical area of Scotland.
Yes, we know that they are under pressure and doing the best they can under very difficult and trying circumstances – but their best is simply not good enough.
Just ask those who have needlessly, and tragically, suffered health loss at their expense.
Medical clinics and doctors have sadly used, and are continuing to use, the Covid-19 pandemic as a smokescreen to deny patients access to urgently needed treatment.
Their shameful negligence of vulnerable unwell people has resulted in vast numbers becoming chronically unwell, some even tragically dying because they weren’t attended to on time or given the immediate specialist care needed to save their lives.
Here in Inverness a lady – who we know - was eventually rushed to A&E in Raigmore Hospital where she was told that – due to the severity of her life-threatening condition – she should have been admitted 10 days earlier!
During that period her husband was constantly on the phone to the medical practice, only to be informed repeatedly that certain prescribed drugs would suffice – the doctor refused to see her in the clinic!
Mercifully, on this occasion, she recovered.
In recent days we were a personal eye-witness to some of these continuing medical debacles.
As I was waiting at Tarbert pier, for the departure of the CalMac ferry, on Saturday, July 2, a passenger became suddenly unwell.
He and his son, both cyclists, were also patiently waiting to board the ferry.
The sickly man had to be quickly laid on a stretcher to make him comfortable.
This was provided by a young back-packer fire-fighter from Germany, who also covered him with his own emergency foil blanket to keep him warm.
Due to the nature of his symptoms, he couldn’t be removed inside the terminal building.
The time this happened was just after 7pm.
A concerned CalMac employee immediately phoned 999 for an ambulance.
On refusing to attend the scene of the emergency, a second 999 call was made – but it was a pointless exercise.
The operator, or whoever answered the call, inquired of the person who raised the alarm to give a rundown on the patient’s condition, only to be told “it’s not serious enough for an ambulance!”
Have I missed out on something here, were my ears hearing right?
Surely when someone, who is unknown to anyone around them, becomes seriously unwell anywhere an ambulance is bound to respond immediately?
What a sheer disgrace, as well as a travesty, when the person answering a 999 call assesses and determines, at the other end, whether the condition of an ill person is serious or “not serious enough for an ambulance!”
An ambulance was requested and an ambulance should have been sent.
Dr Andrew Naylor, the ever-willing south Harris doctor, didn’t ask how serious the patient was when he arrived at supersonic speed to attend to him.
As we were preparing, at the time, to board the ferry, one wonders whether it was eventually a phone call from the doctor that prompted the ambulance to appear with sirens flashing – the time was 8.57pm – nearly two hours later.
It is high time that every single entity within the NHS system, in the Western Isles, Skye, the Highlands and all over Scotland, quickly re-examined the shocking healthcare polices and procedures that are, or are not, in place, which are endangering the lives of patients daily, and at an accelerating pace.
Donald J Morrison
Old Edinburgh Road
Inverness
Drop the prince’s name from trail end point?
Last autumn I had the opportunity to cycle along the excellent Great Glen Way with my 11-year-old son.
The route was interesting, challenging, and meticulously maintained – a credit to The Highland Council and Forestry Commission Scotland.
I was, however, horrified to note upon our arrival three days later in Inverness that it had been opened by none other than Prince Andrew.
I wonder whether, in light of his recent fall from grace (and ongoing legal attention), his name should be stricken from the finish point?
Surely it is no longer appropriate to mark his involvement in this otherwise superb initiative.
James McKirdy
Broughton
Concert goers’ complaints
While few faulted the on stage performance of tenor Andrea Bocelli at Inverness Caledonian Stadium last weekend, there was widespread unhappiness with organisation around the concert for those attending.
“Further to Ian Duncan’s report in Tuesday’s Courier, I wholeheartedly agree with the shambolic organisation of the event. I was amused that Caledonia Calling were blaming the late arrival of ticket holders when in the North Stand, we could clearly see the orchestra arriving at 7.30pm when the concert should have started!” – Cath Stevenson, Nairn
“Uncomfortable seats too close together, no organisation for the public on entering the ground and lack of stewards to ask. It’s great that we can get such fantastic performers to come to Inverness but whoever the organisers are need to run it better.” – Ken Mackinnon, Dochgarroch
“Music WAS GREAT, organising was abysmal...” – Ian Cruickshank, Dundee
Letters should be emailed to newsdesk@hnmedia.co.uk Please include your address and a daytime telephone number. You can also tweet us: @InvCourier or comment on Facebook: @invernesscourier
