Sir, - The close working relationship we have established as a primary care group with Richmondshire and Hambleton district councils and North Yorkshire County Council, both members and officers, is a collaborative working relationship we should strive to build upon and develop, in the best interest of the people we are all privileged to serve.

Coun Blackie (D&S letters, Nov 2) highlights response times which the ambulance trust has a major responsibility in achieving. As he points out, there are other participants in assisting the trust to achieve its target, chiefly the health authority and primary care group.

It is important to emphasise this because, in responding to category A calls within eight minutes, it does not necessarily have to be an ambulance. Public discussions with the ambulance trust and health authority have indicated there may be other ways we can assist hard-pressed ambulance crews in responding to category A calls in sparsely populated areas of North Yorkshire.

It is this spirit of co-operation and collaboration that we in the PCG have tried to engender, believing it is only through shared recognition of the problem and difficulties that we can collectively formulate a strategy for continued improvement in response times to category A calls in Hambleton and Richmondshire. Figures over the past months indicate we are moving in the right direction.

This is something we should all appreciate, but be equally aware it is the start of a long campaign of improvement for which the primary care trust, should it be successful in its application, will have a principal role to play. It will require us all to remain diligent and guard against complacency in pursuit of our collective targets.

We shall continue to share with our partners and public the progress and/or difficulties we encounter. Sharing some of the difficult decisions we have to make is a responsible approach and, based on the many communications I receive, something they appreciate.

In his letter Coun Blackie refers to the refusal of the PCG to introduce cardiac rehabilitation at Richmond Friary hospital. This is quite wrong, and I respectfully request he checks. The PCG and Northallerton trust are committed to providing this valuable service from the Friary hospital and we anticipate this being available to patients by the end of this month.

We are also in the process of extending the opening hours of minor injuries at the Friary to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Opening times will then coincide with those available at the Harewood clinic. This is in advance of a major review we are undertaking on minor injuries throughout Hambleton and Richmondshire.

DAVID H SMITH

Chairman, Hambleton and Richmondshire Primary Care Group.

Faster to act

Sir, - The emerging story of government mismanagement of the foot-and-mouth crisis confirms that agricultural matters such as these are better dealt with at a much more local level. In Wales, for example, the decisive action of the Welsh Assembly limited the foot-and-mouth outbreak there. The quick response to the outbreak in Wales contrasts with that in England where it took nearly three weeks before a co-ordinated and concerted approach was taken.

If Yorkshire, too, had a regional assembly I believe we would have been much quicker out of the blocks than the Whitehall-based mandarins in supporting rural communities.

With the issue of flooding also on the agenda, wouldn't it be so much better to have a devolved regional body able to co-ordinate all the agencies and deal coherently with these sorts of problems in times of crisis and alleviating much of the frustration felt by people in Yorkshire?

DIANA WALLIS MEP

Land of Green Ginger

Hull.

Harmful agents

Sir, - When a nation state is invaded by a hostile power, it rightly uses all the power of its military forces to defeat and repel the invader.

Why then do we and our allies continue to allow both the legal and illegal passage of biological agents which are harmful to our mental and physical well-being, and to the health of our domestic animals?

NORMAN W LESLIE,

Cambridge Avenue,

Marton-in-Cleveland,

Middlesbrough.

Turner Prize

Sir, - In the attempt to prevent J M W Turner from continuing to turn in his grave year after year, might I suggest a change in title of the Turner Prize. I suggest Creative Revolutionary Artistic Productions as a possibility, particularly if it catches on in its abbreviated form.

VIC SMITH

Westholme,

Hutton Rudby,

Yarm.