Wales is sleepwalking into another lockdown
AFTER a full day on Tuesday, November 16, trying to get my Covid pass it eventually came through around 6.30pm and allowed me to attend the Wales v Belgium match at Cardiff City Stadium.
I got to the entrance gate, the stewards checked my bag but nothing else, and Welsh fans around me were not wearing masks either. Nobody I saw was having their Covid passes checked. People were just allowed to go through the gates as normal.
This is the reality of the public adherence and the control /policing of these so-called Covid regulations. 32,500 attended this match.
I kept two masks on throughout and I did not see anyone else doing likewise – other than the stewards.
The fourth wave is now spreading across Europe and in countries that have been far more proactive in enforcing their own Covid policies than in Wales and the UK.
Worryingly, primary school children are now catching Covid and this obviously then impacts upon their own families, who have to selfisolate.
Subsequently, this will directly impact upon key workers in the NHS, social care, education and the emergency services.
And we have yet to reach the cold and flu season, when viruses will spread more quickly, and combined with Covid, are even more serious, especially for those people who have serious health issues and are vulnerable.
We are sleepwalking into another potential lockdown scenario because the Welsh Government has simply got this wrong.
The public are not adhering to the rules, they are not being enforced and, in my opinion, if cases continue to rise and directly impact on the NHS, we will run out of intensive beds soon; there will be no staff to support people in hospitals or in care homes once again; and the statistics will rise significantly.
Back in the Spanish flu period after the First World War it was the subsequent outbreaks or waves that really hit the world population, and this included the younger generations.
We appear to have learned nothing from history.
BE John
Cardiff
Support Macmillan this Christmas
YET another year has gone by when the Macmillan Pontyclun & District Fundraising Group has been unable to go ahead with its popular fundraising events.
Here at Macmillan we are striving to raise funds to help people living with cancer and their families in our communities, and the Pontyclun Fundraising Group has always raised large sums of money to help our cause.
We help people get through cancer and your donations make it happen.
We need to continue raising funds to support the work of Macmillan nurses and services in the local community.
We would therefore like to ask readers to help us by donating to Macmillan this Christmas via our online fundraising group page
Please follow the link to make your donation today – https://macmillan-org.charitycheckout.co.uk/ pontyclundistrict/profile
Readers can also follow us on Facebook for updates https://www. facebook.com/PontyclunG/
We’d also love to hear from anyone who would like to join our group and help make a real difference to people living with cancer in Pontyclun and surrounding areas.
And please don’t forget that if you or someone you know is affected by cancer please get in touch. For information, support or just someone to talk to, call 0808 808 00 00 or visit macmillan.org.uk. To donate, volunteer, raise money or campaign with us, call 0300 1000 200 or visit macmillan.org.uk
Thank you for your invaluable support. Wishing you a happy Christmas and a peaceful and safe new year.
Christine Dickinson
Chair of the Macmillan Pontyclun & District Fundraising Group
The public are not adhering to the rules, they are not being enforced
BE John Cardiff
Plan unsafe and outdated
A brave lady Cat Lewis’ application for a judicial review of the plan to build a standalone Velindre hospital on the Northern Meadows has been rejected.
Where is the justice in such a decision whereby the Welsh Senedd cannot be held to account for allowing a clinically unsafe model of cancer care to go ahead?
Clinical advice and evidence show that a standalone cancer facility is outdated and unsafe; clinical evidence has shown that a cancer facility such as Velindre should be co-located with a general hospital such as UHW.
Cancer treatments have developed and complex care often requires emergency facilities on site.
Where is the justice when patients’ lives are at risk in a cancer hospital which does not provide a high- dependency or critical care unit?
Where is the justice when a patient has to be transferred /”bluelighted” to UHW for emergency care? Valuable time is lost as we know the duress and constrictions our ambulance service is under.
Where is the justice when our Senedd ignores the advice of senior doctors (163) from 32 specialities, who have twice written to Vaughan Gething (in January and May 2021) outlining the clinical reasons why this outdated model of care is unsafe and should not go ahead?
Co-location with a general hospital is the only way ahead for a cancer hospital, and is the standard of care all of south-east Wales deserves.
In a letter in November 2020, Professor Neil Burnet from the Division of Cancer Services, School of Medical Sciences, Manchester, said, Velindre itself will lose its current prestige when, with modern cancer care it will not be able to provide complex, innovative treatments which require an onsite ICU facility.
A co-located hospital is the only way forward, as we see in Clatterbridge, Liverpool, as well as in other
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areas of England.
What are the reasons for this intransigence by Mark Drakeford ‘s government and Velindre?
In relation to the climate emergency, acknowledged by our government, where is the justice in destroying the Northern Meadows, a valuable green site, with its established trees, a heronry and extensive wildlife?
Where is the justice in destroying an area which is essential for the health and wellbeing of residents of Cardiff, living in a highly polluted city like Cardiff?
Where is the justice in increasing the risk of flooding into Llandaff North and Whichurch, when old established trees which curently take up groundwater, are destroyed?
Hasn’t Cardiff council nor our Senedd taken heed of the climate conference Cop26?
It beggars belief how our council, our Senedd Members and Velindre hierarchy can sleep at night knowing that this proposal is unsafe, and out- dated on so many fronts.
Gill Griffin
Llandaff North