Why should we OAPs lose out at A&E?

I read with mounting anger your story last week about the Scottish Government’s plan to send over-65s who may need accident and emergency care to care homes or hospices if they should fall, have minor injuries or suffer slight ailments.

This is all because the same A&E departments are busy tending to drunks, drug addicts or fights caused by too much drinking.

Why not send that lot somewhere else to be attended to?

Why should pensioners, who have worked all their lives with many still working, be denied A&E treatment?

This is a disgrace and anyone with a bit of common sense should know that if Scotland becomes independent then it is only the beginning of the end.

Carla, Glasgow, by email

Referring to NHS Scotland plans to send over-65 year olds to care homes or hospices rather than accident and emergency centres, would a better solution not be to put alcoholics, brawlers and drug addicts into police cells overnight.

Before they are discharged the next morning they could be ordered to clean up any mess that they have made.

That would certainly relieve the A&E departments. Joyce Fleming, Chirnside,

Berwickshire

I felt strongly regarding your front page headline last Sunday (Call 999 and be sent to a care home).

I am 65 and suffer from ill health but I am still active and independent.

Maybe the next time I have palpitations I will not call NHS24 but will wait until the heart attack takes place – that, at least, guarantees me admission to A&E.

Alison Ross, by email

Your front page last week confronts a very serious issue whereby over-65s who call for an ambulance could be taken to a care home rather than hospital. This is a breach of human rights for those who have paid taxes all their lives to fund the NHS.

Not so long ago Alex Salmond and Health Secretary Alex Neil said the NHS was ‘in the safe hands of the SNP’ if we get independence.

So, fellow pensioners – can you really believe anything that comes from the SNP? It is your vote. Make the right choice for all us old ones.

James B Borland, Peebles