LETTERS

Write to: Daily Mail Letters, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT email: letters@dailymail.co.uk

Low-cost NHS

PATIENTS may not be able to get painkillers and cough mixture on the NHS from next year (Mail).

Chief executive of NHS England Simon Stevens said: ‘The NHS should not be paying for low-value treatments and it’s right that we look at reducing prescriptions for medicines patients can buy for a fraction of the price the NHS pays.’

If he knows this is the case, why, as CEO, has he not put a stop to this gross waste of public money and ensured the NHS pays the proper price for these low-cost items?

This must be the biggest foot-inmouth gaffe ever, by an overpaid chief executive who obviously doesn’t do irony.

Now that it has been admitted that drugs along with medical equipment are grossly overcharged to the NHS, maybe Mr Stevens will start a careful examination of the way bulk purchases are made for his organisation and see if there is a scam going on in procurement.

HARRY KENNARD, Peasmarsh, E. Sussex. I AGREE that doctors shouldn’t prescribe drugs such as paracetamol that can be bought for next to nothing over the counter.

But the NHS would save millions if only it got to grips with its procurement practices and charged foreign visitors for treatment.

SANDRA BALL, Truro, Cornwall. READING the list of items that will no longer be prescribed by an NHS doctor, I am dumbfounded. I would never have dreamt of asking my doctor for dandruff shampoo or indigestion remedies.

Why do some people feel everything must be provided free of charge, no matter how insignificant?

L. GADSBY, Truro, Cornwall.

Hazard warning

THE frightening report by Harry Wallop about the danger of white goods catching fire gives a vivid insight into what went wrong in the Grenfell Tower disaster.

The flammable cladding was a contributing cause but the primary cause was a faulty fridge-freezer that caught fire. Had there been a sprinkler system, the disaster could have been avoided.

Who knows what fire hazards are in UK homes? We are already aware of tumble dryers and mobile phone chargers catching fire. These should not be left unattended.

But many homes have built-in appliances, such as fridge-freezers, that can’t be monitored 24/7. Surely every home should fit smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

MIKE GILLSON, Kirkbymoorside, York.

Travel conundrum

IF YOU travel by road, you will pay fuel duty, road duty and VAT. If you travel by plane, you pay airport tax. But if you travel by train, you expect a subsidy. Not much of a level playing field.

ROGER BALE, St Clement, Jersey.

In Diana’s footsteps

I WOULD like to congratulate Harry and Meghan on their first official visit. Diana would have been proud of both of them.

Admittedly, as a TV actress, Meghan is used to all of this, but I loved it when she handed the mitten back to the lady who had dropped it.

I expect the fuddy-duddies at the Palace will have something to say about that, but I hope Harry is strong enough not to let The Firm change her.

Down- to- earth Meghan will brighten the future for the Royal Family if she is not reined in too far.

Let her be her natural self — she loves Harry and will be a tremendous help to him and the future of the monarchy.

DANA PERRIN, Ticehurst, E. Sussex.

Best boot forward

WELL done to the Duchess of Cambridge for keeping her boots in such good condition that she can wear them again and again (Mail).

Expensive boots are worth the money. I wear mine from October to March, and they are polished regularly. In the spring, they go to the cobbler for their yearly maintenance, then they are packed up nice and cosy until October.

JULIE GREEN, Dewsbury, W. Yorks.

Blair’s bureaucrats

EVERY police force could save thousands of pounds by scrapping useless Police and Crime Commissioners and their hangers-on.

What has been achieved by these bureaucrats except spending money that could be better used by the police themselves?

Also, community support officers, or plastic policemen as I call them, have few powers and do nothing in particular. They should be scrapped and replaced with real police officers with full powers.

And every chief constable who claims he can no longer do a proper job of policing should be fired and replaced with an officer who can.

PETER WESTRIP, Dorchester, Dorset.

Inconvenient truth

TODAY at the ‘ Britain Against Cancer’ conference, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer

launches its report on progress half- way through NHS england’s five-year Cancer Strategy. having received extensive evidence from across the NHS, the report makes for difficult reading.

While recognising improvements, it concludes that NHS england will struggle to achieve the Strategy’s objectives unless corrective action is immediately taken.

it remains an inconvenient truth that, while survival rates globally are improving, we have still to catch up with international averages. in 2009, the Government estimated we could save an extra 10,000 lives a year if we matched european survival rates. We hope the Government and NHS england will heed the report’s findings. JOHN BARON MP (chairman),

BARONESS FINLAY OF LLANDAFF (vice-chair) and others, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer, Houses of

Parliament, London SW1.

Broken society

The police won’t protect us, the NHS might not look after us, boys can be girls, girls can be boys, foreign murderers, rapists and known terrorists can live here with impunity, subsidised by taxpayers, people can’t say this or that without upsetting someone, minority groups rule, speeding and parking cameras are there to fleece us. The country is going to hell in a handcart. MIKE CATTERALL, Accrington, Lancs.

Christmas gloom

MY FAMILY has an annual competition to find the advert that shows Christmas in the most depressing, disheartening way possible.

This year’s winner is Sky, where the festive family get-together is marked by the upgrading of a TV package, so that while they download six programmes, mum and Dad can watch something else on their own and the kids can all watch something different in their own rooms. What a happy time that must be, with no family interaction and no mixing of young and old because they’re all glued to separate TV screens. RICHARD BROOKES,

address supplied.

... and festive waste

i am shocked that millions will be spent on Christmas presents for pets. They would be just as happy with old cardboard boxes.

BARBARA THOMAS, Billingshurst, W. Sussex.