Pick of the week’s correspondence
Paying for GP visits... To The Times
Further to your article “Should the NHS charge for care?”, the UK is hopelessly shackled to a system that does not deliver for its customers, but is instead focused on protecting the interests of the institution and its employees. In France, one pays €26 to see a GP and €53 to see a specialist. Of this, 70% is reimbursed by state insurance within a few days.
The system is not perfect – getting registered with a GP or a dentist can be a problem – but long waiting times for treatments are virtually unheard of. It is immeasurably superior to the NHS.
Ian MacDonald, France
...will hurt the poor... To The Times
More than two million children – almost 25% of pupils – are on free school meals. They have a net household income of £7,400 or less. How are those families supposed to afford charges for a GP appointment, let alone private insurance?
There are plenty of companies on standby, waiting to make a profit out of privatised healthcare, just as they profit from child and adult social care now. We should be wary of allowing them to. You don’t know what you have till it’s gone. Angela James, Swansea
...but help the doctors To The Times
I offer this observation: as a GP partner running a practice, I provide a service that gives unlimited access to a team of GPs, advanced nurse practitioners, practice nurses, healthcare assistants, phlebotomists and patient advisers. For this service we receive about £155 per patient per year. You cannot insure your dog for that. The funding model has to change.
Dr Ross Mitchell, Jedburgh, Scottish Borders
In the line of duty? To The Daily Telegraph
When I joined the Met in 1970, the recruits’ bible, the Instruction Book, explained how to stop a runaway horse. Guidance on other large quadrupeds was sadly lacking.
If the cow in Feltham had run into a child or an elderly person last Friday, it could have caused serious injury or worse (“Officer who rammed calf removed from duties”).
Between 2018 and 2022, more than 30 people were killed by cows. The suspension of an officer for using his initiative in trying to prevent harm is disproportionate.
Roy Ramm, Great Dunmow, Essex
A joy for ever To the Financial Times
Regarding Jemima Kelly’s column “Why our brains crave beauty, art and nature”, it’s not surprising that the appreciation of all things beautiful is proven to be essential to our well-being. The real miracle, however, is that humans are constructed in such a way that we recognise beauty in the first place.
Think of the complex neurological signalling that translates the physical facts of music – that is the sound waves hitting the ear drum – into the depth of emotion that brings tears to our eyes.
A second miracle is the human capacity to find things amusing, almost from the very beginning. By six months of age, we already delight in the humorous. These then are the greatest gifts we are bestowed, apart from the treasures of language and love – to be awed by the beautiful and to laugh at the hilarious. Margaret McGirr, US
Private schools... To The Times
For years now, private schools have increased their fees by far more than the rate of inflation without suffering a decline in demand for private education. As a result, they have enjoyed facilities that state schools can only dream of while state schools have had to adapt to years of underfunding. It cannot be beyond the wit of private schools to cope with this change to VAT.
Jim Stather, Farnham, Surrey
...and public promises To The Times
Apropos Jim Stather’s belief that it is not beyond the wit of private schools to cope with the change to their liability for VAT, there is a principle at stake: Labour promised that there would be no raising of VAT over the next parliament.
Imposing VAT on school fees will inevitably result in some children moving to state schools. What is the plan to ensure the continuation and matching of studies towards GCSEs or A levels? No plan would be necessary were the Labour Party to eschew the notoriety of becoming the sole country in Europe to tax secondary education.
Dr Richard Connaughton, Nettlecombe, Dorset
Some wisdom on teeth To The Daily Telegraph
The Labour plan for health is reported to include a commitment to bring in supervised toothbrushing for three- to five-year-olds.
Dentists have spent hours and hours over many decades trying to teach that toothbrushing per se does not prevent the primary disease of decay in children.
What causes tooth decay? Sweets, biscuits, juices, to name a few. Toothbrushing does not prevent decay. It does help cement a lifetime regime – but parents can do this, and it doesn’t really need to be efficient in the three-to-five age group. Brushing is much more important in adults, as it helps prevent gum disease.
Oral hygiene in adults is a far more laudable aim. Spending valuable resources on toothbrushing for three- to five-year-olds is a total waste. David Burton BDS, Dorking, Surrey
Remembered with pride To The Spectator
Some years ago I visited the Normandy graves and was touched by the splendid memorials. The inscription which affected me the most and still does, read as follows: “To the world he was one of many, to us he was the world.”
To me this sums up the sadness of it all.
George Burne, Woldingham, Surrey