Hear all sides

YOUR comment (Echo, Feb 22) makes the issue of the NHS a simple lack of resources, and that a massive tax rise will cure the problem.

Such a prognosis lacks substance and will fall flat unless there is commitment and a better managed initiative.

This Government, since it came to power, has thrown billions at various projects and what it calls a fairer society, yet this shambles is there for all to see.

This Government has made a mess of our private sector industry, its policies regarding transport and the environment are in shambles, as for its increase in spending in the NHS, it fails to make an improvement.

Its policies on immigration are a mess and are costing us an arm and a leg. Law and order costs a fortune, yet London is six times more dangerous than New York. Violence is the accepted norm, and murder rife.

The assertion that we all must pay more if we wish to use the NHS sounds fine; yet we are constantly told there are those who will have to pay more for those who can't.

Higher taxes to pay for failure will not work, nor will the platitudes of desperation. We have had the NHS on the cheap for too long. High taxation has never worked, especially when it creates a gravy train for some. - John Young, Crook.

I FEEL compelled to write and reassure your readers that being whisked off to hospital at short notice was not a nightmare of trolley waiting.

I made a hasty hospital entry on February 14. Casualty staff were great, speedy, reassuring, arranged a bed in Ward 41 in just over an hour. All the staff in Ward 41 were just simply wonderful.

A great big thank you to Darlington Memorial Hospital - superb teamwork throughout. - Rosemary Gallery, Newton Aycliffe.

FOLLOWING coverage of Professor Darzi's report on acute services in County Durham and Darlington (Echo, Feb 21), does The Northern Echo believe in local access to hospital care or not?

On the one hand, you seem to support Kevin Earley's view that the people of the Dales should travel to Darlington or Durham City for all of their hospital care, and that the new hospital in Bishop Auckland should not have been built.

On the other hand, you are unhappy for patients to go further than their local hospital for specialised treatment.

At the heart of this is a simple question: do the people of the Dales deserve a new hospital or not? We believe that they do. Kevin Earley does not. What does The Northern Echo believe? - Ken Jarrold CBE, Chief Executive, County Durham and Darlington Health Authority.

SINCE it seems that I'm younger than Peter Scholey (HAS, Feb 27) and can't remember those days, can he tell me if there ever was a National Health Service of the standard he refers to?

What most people complain about is that the National Insurance is compulsory to pay yet we still have to pay for prescription charges, dental examinations, eye tests, and have to go private if want urgent treatment.

People have a right to get stroppy when they are paying for a service that they are getting nothing out of. - RJ Cooke, Barnard Castle.

PETER MULLEN

WHEN I read Rev Peter Mullen's column (Echo, Feb 26) I was amazed to discover that he actually wrote about religion. Very unusual.

Naturally, he had nothing good to say about anyone or anything, indeed the subject of his derision this week was his own religion.

Then he goes on to mock the Methodists, and, as a Scot, I did not take kindly to his criticism of the Scottish Presbyterians, and I have some very strong words to say on this matter.

But since I gather from his writings that this cynical cleric is a very unhappy man, I have decided to forgive him. - Cameron McNab, Peterlee.

LAW AND ORDER

VIOLENT crime is on the increase, and most other crimes as well. Does David Blunkett really think that letting criminals, even those convicted of lesser offences, out during the daytime, and the tagging of the young thugs terrorising our streets at night, is the right message to be sending?

The vast majority of the population thinks the lefty liberalism that has ruined our society must now stop, and the zero tolerance attitude adopted.

Maybe the Government should let the people decide, instead of their blinkered indifference to the pleas from victims for justice to be served.

The case of the student Patrick Brown from Durham (HAS, Feb 27), killed by a thug hell-bent on causing trouble, is typical of the malaise.

The judge, for some reason known only to him and bewildering to everyone else, after taking into account the defendant's past record of violence, gave him a minimum of only two and a half years before parole.

Well, if this is justice, then something must now be done before it is too late.

My sympathy goes to the family of Patrick Brown and to the families of all other victims who have had to sit back and see justice not being served. - David Lythe, Willington.

LONGFIELD SCHOOL

ON behalf of myself and the governing body of Longfield School, Darlington, I would like to express our sincere thanks for The Northern Echo's valuable assistance in helping us meet our target of £50,000 to enable us to apply for Sports College Status.

The publicity we received helped a great deal in enabling us to reach our target.

If we are successful in our application, it will be a great opportunity for the school and the local community. - Douglas Watson, Chair of Governors, Longfield School, Darlington.