NEW SYSTEM IS A GOOD THING
MISSING PIECE OF HISTORY
I AM writing a short history of my father’s service in the Second World War.
He served in the Royal Corps of Signals attached to the 135 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery with its HQ at Macclesfield Drill Hall.
Between March and October 1941 their cable store in the town burnt down and I am trying to find out where it was located - I wonder if any of your readers could please help? All that has survived from his time there is a postcard he wrote showing a view of South Park.
Leaving Macclesfield, he and his regiment were posted to Singapore where they were captured by the Japanese. They were imprisoned at Changi Jail and later sent to Thailand where they worked on building the bridge over the River Kwai and many lost their lives in the jungle camps on the infamous railway of death to Burma.
Many thought sentimentally about happier times in the UK as this verse in a poem written by Jack Caplan (R. C. of Signals) expresses, Street, not my husband who was named as the author as he was not born there. He was originally from Wales. Pat Williams (nee Wood) via email I WAS surprised by the opinion stated by Peter Hayes (‘System is NHS interference’, Letters, January 3) surrounding our clinical commissioning group’s (CCG) intention to provide referral support to patients and GPs. I respect Mr Hayes’ significant experience in the NHS but feel he has been misinformed on this occasion. I would like to assure him, and the wider public, that the changes outlined by my CCG colleague Lucy Price (Health Matters, December 27) have been developed by and in partnership with local GPs and consultants, and have their support.
We are introducing a level of support for GPs and their patients that refines and improves the quality of referrals to make sure patients see the right specialist with the right level of urgency, and have had all necessary tests and treatments before that appointment.GPs will be able to seek advice directly from specialists and use software which makes the whole process more reliable and user friendly for patients and practices, which can still bypass the system and refer directly if preferred. This in turn should free up more GP time and reduce wasted hospital appointments, as evidence from other areas has demonstrated.
The NHS is constantly changing, and needs to. As a GP myself, knowing who, where, when and how to refer to some services is sometimes mind boggling. New technologies, treatments, specialists and clinics become available each week – this system will help. GPs and their colleagues working in specialist nursing, physiotherapy, diagnostics and other communitybased therapies are now able to provide so much more care in patients’ own communities than even when I was a hospital doctor. The “community” should not be considered a second class environment for care, and our hospitals must not be the only place where specialist, crisis or complex care is delivered. For none of us wants to travel to hospital if some or all of that specialist and generalist care can be delivered closer to our homes in a more safe, effective manner. And when we do need specialist care, we often want it from the service that excels at that specialism. The NHS wastes millions on needless, duplicative, expensive and wasteful appointments and treatments which could be avoided with systems and approaches like this.
It is important that the public has the correct, objective and evidencebased information to help form opinions on any changes to the way the NHS currently provides care, or is planning to.
I would encourage people to check out information on our website at www. easterncheshireccg.nhs.uk or join us at our monthly Governing Body meetings or HealthVoice meetings (www.echealthvoice.info), where issues such as this and more are discussed in an informed, constructive but equally challenging way. Dr Paul Bowen GP, Chair of NHS Eastern Cheshire CCG