Funds well spent

Health Minister Shona Robison, in calling for health officials to resign over “misappropriation” of charity funds by defraying costs of IT equipment to aid patient care instead of funding hospital day rooms and children’s toys, might, when she thinks again, reflect that computerised records are of great benefit to both GP and hospital patient care.

As a current in-patient in Perth Royal Infirmary and also under local GP care, I have been hugely impressed by the great advances in hospital communications and access to patients’ records in facilitating care. Compared with my own experiences as a hospital doctor till two decades ago, the quick, easy access to vital, extensive clinical data and information represents stunning progress.

There is only so much funding to go round and the benefits from improving communications surely bring more medical progress than, say, the acquisition of children’s toys, which, anyway, they have at home already. I believe the charitable donors would have agreed with the IT spending! (DR) CHARLES WARDROP Viewlands Road West, Perth