This weeks letters from the readers 6/4/2017

We can appreciate the difficulties in determining what is a minor illness and minor injury in children and have tried to make this as straightforward as possible in our communications to parents and the wider public.

We aim to ensure that a child is brought to the healthcare facility that is best able to deal with their condition.

This ensures that they receive appropriate healthcare as quickly as is required and also minimises the need for a transfer to another location.

We have used examples of minor injury and minor illness to help parents and carers make the decision about where they should take a child.

Minor illness includes children with a short vomiting illness or a high temperature.

Minor injuries on the other hand include sprains, cuts and fractures of hands and feet.

Children with an illness will be seen by their GP or via the GP out of hours service – contactable by calling NHS 24 on 111.

Seriously ill children must be taken to the nearest A&E department, either at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley or the Royal Hospital for Children on the Queen Elizabeth Campus in Glasgow.

In the event of a parent or carer being unsure where the best place to take an ill or injured child to, NHS 24 is available to patients 24 hours a day to provide assistance and advice in deciding where is the best place to take an ill or injured child.

Dr Alasdair Corfield

Clinical Director of Emergency Medicine (Clyde),

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

HELENSBURGH was once nominated for the ‘Plook on a Plinth’ award – how it never won the award I don’t know. Yet somehow it recently was in a list of one of the best places to live. Presumably it was a list made by the ‘ironic lists society’.

Maybe it’s a good place to live if you like charity shops, old folks’ homes, empty pubs and nothing happening. Or gossip, rumours and the smell of rotting seaweed.

It is a dump of a town. It used to be good; now it’s dead. It has ceased to be. It is pushing up daisies.

This is an ex town. Most people with any sense have left and gone somewhere better. I can’t wait to leave; it is the worst town in Scotland, Great Britain, Europe, the planet, the universe.

Some people worry about a nuclear accident at Faslane. It would cause millions of pounds worth of improvements to Helensburgh. The only good thing about this town is the train to Glasgow.

This is God’s waiting room. And death would be preferable to living here. The two most interesting things to do in Helensburgh are watch the grass grow or watch paint dry.

Some people say this town never changes. It has; it has got worse. Get out now while you still have a chance. Run, run, get out while you still can.

Darrel Hendrie,

via email

AT the March Helensburgh Community Council meeting, our Youth Forum indicated that they would appreciate an open day in the Victoria Halls to meet all the clubs and societies in Helensburgh.

This was particularly true for sports clubs. It would involve setting up individual tables and pitching your expertise to the youngsters in the town.

The community council will gladly arrange such an event. The first step is to find out how many clubs and societies would be willing to participate.

Those who are interested and willing to take part should send me the contact email of the person representing the organisation at - convener@helensburghcommunitycouncil.co.uk

The community council will then take action to make the necessary arrangements.

This seems an ideal opportunity to recruit new enthusiasts and bridge the inter-generational aspects of youth and experience.

Norman Muir

Convener,

Helensburgh Community Council

Hasn’t it been an entertaining few weeks watching the most obvious case of political sour grapes being played out in the media for all to see as a former SNP councillor spits his dummy out of the pram having been deselected.

But for my money’s worth, if the local SNP are willing to shake out the ineffective ‘old guard’ of ‘Councillorville’ and given the issues coming to light with the incumbent administration, I say ‘good on you’.

If they have the gusto to shake off the old, I reckon they could give the council a good shake-down also. And it’s long overdue.

Archibald Douglas,

Via email

IT is little wonder that the Vale of Leven Hospital is struggling to find staff to keep services running.

Every week, for as long as I can remember, Jackie Baillie MSP and James Moohan, from Hospitalwatch, have told us the hospital is hanging by a thread, and will close at any moment.

What right-minded person would consider moving to a job if there was any murmur that their new workplace was threatened with closure?

There is a phrase that describes what Baillie and Moohan have created here – the self-fulfilling prophecy. Their negativity may well have doomed the Vale to closure.

Cynically, however, Jackie Baillie has positioned herself to capitalise from the VoL situation whatever the outcome. If it stays open, she’ll claim to have single-handedly saved it. If it closes, she’ll be able to say “I told you so”. What an awful game to play with patients’ lives.

Cathy Bell,

Dumbarton

A RECENT survey of small and medium-sized businesses has found the vast majority are vehemently against another independence referendum. Only one in 10 said they liked the idea, with all others saying it would damage growth and cause even more uncertainty.

A survey on social attitudes has shown people think the economy should be the Scottish Government’s number one priority. I like the many others in Scotland’s Unionist majority agree with the results of both surveys. Healthier public finances would allow the Scottish Government to spend more across all areas, while making people wealthier and boosting opportunities. Yet instead, the SNP simply want to go back to another referendum.

It’s high time that we the people of Scotland sent the separatism obsessed SNP a message by voting for the Conservative and Unionist Party in this May’s council elections.

Help let the Scottish Government know that it needs to get on with the day job and stop neglecting its devolved responsibilities because of its endless quest for separation.

Alastair Redman

Portnahaven, Islay

THERE is something deeply troubling about what the Tory party is becoming under Theresa May and Ruth Davidson.

If anything shows where the Tory party is heading in Scotland it’s the type of candidate they are attracting to stand for them.

In Moray they have a defector from UKIP – a clear sign that they are now becoming Scotland’s version of UKIP; and in Highland they have a candidate who was quoted as saying: “The whole of Scotland is racist. It’s as racist as any country in Europe – in fact it’s a lot worse.”

Oddly he is not standing in the area he lives but on the other side of the Highlands. Was it because locals in his own area said: “He writes things that are particularly offensive to people in this community”?

But we shouldn’t be surprised the Tories are attracting such candidates when they have a leader in Scotland who thinks it’s okay to use euphemisms in political debate about “slaying” political opponents (at the end of a referendum where a politician was murdered), and talking of a democratic campaign as a “fratricide” (another word for civil war).

We also have the Tory finance spokesperson showing respect for other people’s opinions by telling people to “shut up” and who refers to a policy the Scottish Government was elected into government by the public as threatening to “start shooting the hostages”.

To top it all off we have a Prime Minister whose idea of diplomatically negotiating is to suggest withholding intelligence about terrorism in order to get free trade whilst she has failed to rule out the NHS being open to US private health contractors under any trade deal she signs with Donald Trump.

The Tory party is showing all the hallmarks of a party moving away from the centre towards the fringe of politics and which seems determined to poison public debate with rude, abusive and extreme rhetoric.

William Paterson

Holyrood Park Road,

Edinburgh

759,000 people in Scotland care, unpaid, for a disabled, older or ill family member or friend. Whilst caring can be rewarding, without the right support, it can also take a serious toll on a carer’s health, relationships and finances.

That’s why, this Carers Week (June 12-18), we are asking individuals and communities up and down the country to do what they can to make life that little bit easier for carers.

This year, we want to highlight the importance of Carer Friendly Communities – places where local people and services understand what it’s like to be a carer and show what they are doing to help and support carers better.

As such, we’re asking people to visit the Carers Week website to recommend carer friendly services. It might be an employer, local GP, pharmacy, local care service, school or a café that is carer friendly. We urge everyone to pledge their support to carers and make a change.

There are lots of different ways to get involved in Carers Week. You can visit the Carers Week website www.carersweek.org and recommend an organisation or service that is carer friendly, pledge your support for Carers Week and carry out a change that will help your organisation or service to become more carer friendly, run an activity or event and add it to the Carers Week website to get a free event pack with resources for your event

You can follow Carers Week on Twitter @CarersWeek and use the hashtag #carersweek, and ‘like’ Carers Week on Facebook at www.facebook.com/carersweek and join in with the discussions

Carers Week 2017 is made possible by Carers Scotland and Carers UK joining forces with Age UK, Carers Trust, Independent Age, Macmillan Cancer Support, Motor Neurone Disease Association, MS Society and Which? Elderly Care and kindly supported by Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition and the Lockwood Foundation.

Simon Hodgson,

Director, Carers Scotland

RESEARCH by The National Autistic Society Scotland has revealed that more than half (56 per cent) of the public think a person with autism isn’t paying attention when they don’t answer a question right away, and 24 per cent would think they are being rude.

As part of our Too Much Information campaign, which aims to increase understanding of autism, I want to let your readers know that many autistic people need extra time to process information.

This may mean that they take longer than expected to answer questions, speak slowly, or are unable to maintain eye contact during a conversation. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t paying attention, and it certainly doesn’t mean they’re rude.

Giving autistic people time to process information, using clear language, and being patient really can make a world of difference. I hope your readers will visit autism.org.uk/get-involved/tmi.aspx to find out more about the small changes they can make to build a more autism-friendly Scotland.

Jenny Paterson

Director for Scotland, National Autistic Society