Medical insurance has its flaws

He may well be correct, but at what cost financially?

I have cousins on the Continent who are Belgian nationals and others who are German nationals. My two remaining Belgian cousins stayed with me in February of this year in order to spend time with their sister who was terminally ill and resident in a first class local nursing home.

They had an interview with their sister's GP, who sympathetically explained in detail everything concerning their sister, and every day they visited their sister and marvelled at the care and attention which she was receiving.

They kept asking how their sister was able to afford such treatment and I explained the system which operated in this country.

They then told me of their experiences in Belgium. Albert, from Brussels, had a partner for 16 years who was finally hospitalised with cervical cancer. He told me that for the last few weeks of his partner's life he had almost lived at the hospital, sleeping there each night. He did this because he personally took on the nursing care which is accepted as being the role of the patient's family.

This care consisted of washing, bathing, dressing and undressing the patient. Getting her out to the toilet and cleaning her afterwards. Feeding her and giving her drinks. When asked why hospital nurses did not do this, it was explained to me that their role was purely medical, ie monitoring and checking of drips and other medical equipment, taking of temperatures, and the changing of dressings and bandages.

Annie, from Leuven, confirmed that what Albert had said was correct. She herself had been battling against cervical cancer for more than two years. The cancer was now in remission but she was still on medication and would always remain so. The cost of this medication was £140 per month. The insurance company would not cover this cost.

In Germany in the city of Hamburg I have three cousins, all with their own grown up families. All were born into and brought up in flats and when married continued to live in flats, but not the middle one. Brigitte and her husband Thomas enjoyed the good life.

She had three very successful ladies fashion shops and Thomas had his own tarmacadam business. No knocking on doors and asking to tarmac a driveway for him. He had contracts with the Hamburg City Council and with a number of large building firms. Their success was evident by the large beautiful detached house they lived in, complete with extensive gardens.

Then Thomas got cancer in one side of his face, in the jaw bone and throat. Operations were carried out and the surgeons were forced to remove the jawbone, part of the tongue and areas of the throat.

These operations and follow up treatment were a success, but then came the extensive task of re-building the face. The plastic surgery required could only be carried out in Aachen near the Belgian and Dutch borders, 325 miles from Hamburg.

When I saw Thomas in Aachen twelve months ago he was in hospital for yet another four week period, during which time he would undergo a further four operations. The fourth of those operations would be the 26th in total, with more to follow.

The three shops have long since had to be sold and so has the tarmacadam business.

They still have the house but are saddled with a second mortgage. Thomas is still battling away and I have no doubt that he will triumph in the end. The cost financially, however, has been crippling despite being "fully insured" whatever that means.

I am forever grateful that we have the National Health Service and may it always be so. It may not be perfect but I believe it to be the best system in Europe.

Melvyn Hawkins,

Overdale Park, Skipton.

Angry at closure

SIR - with reference to your recent article regarding the extra classroom at Coates Lane School (Barnoldswick), I'm afraid I cannot join in celebrations. On the contrary, it makes me sick.

When the consultation period began on the closure of Rainhall Road School it was said that there were enough places in "other" schools to accommodate our children.

It was funny at the time that we did not get any support from Coates Lane, but now we know why. They wanted our pupils so they could get a new classroom. How thoughtful!

Now comes the baffling bit. I don't really know how they succeeded in this as, at the initial public consultation meeting, attended by Dr Dunn, Mr Steven Mercer and Coun Tony Martin, they promised us that there was definitely not enough money in the kitty for any new classroom. Well there is now, after the demise of Rainhall Road School.

I would like to know how seven pupils from Rainhall Road, who have had to transfer to Coates, have suddenly pushed the numbers up so far as to warrant a new classroom. Perhaps it is something to do with the fact that right from the very beginning, figures have been wrong and it is very probable that Coates Lane has actually been oversubscribed for some time, due to a miscalculation in floor space which included the hall! What a shambles.

Why are schools allowed to oversubscribe in the first place? Don't say it's because of parental choice - there's no such term. Rainhall Road parents wanted their school to stay open. Instead they've been forced to go to schools they didn't want to go to and separated from their friends.

If Rainhall Road School was forced to close due to falling numbers, then why can't the schools that were oversubscribed send pupils there? This is not education any more, it is politics and business. It is very sad that schools have become businesses instead of places of learning.

I personally would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Cormack (former headteacher at Rainhall Road), Mrs Wade, Mrs Southern, Mrs Hartley, Mrs Selman and all other helpers for their wonderful teaching and professionalism, especially right up to the closure.

To me, the ethos and sympathetic outlook of these teachers far outweighs any "businesslike" teachers. As for the quality of teaching, my daughter passed for Clitheroe Grammar School and left school attaining three level fives in her SATs, but most of all she left with a loving, caring attitude. The same applies to my son - he also got excellent results in the internal exams.

The powers-that-be don't realise what a very big mistake they have made. How do they sleep at night?

On my last note, I wish all staff and pupils the very best luck in their new schools. By the way, my son will not be attending school in Barnoldswick.

I am an angry and sad ex-parent-governor at Rainhall Road School.

Mrs Maureen Blackwell,

Barnoldswick.

Super service

SIR - I would like to say thank you to the Skipton Gas Centre staff for their helpfulness when I recently ordered a cupboard from them.

The lady who served me was very courteous and polite and went to great lengths to help me with my purchases, and as I was going on the canal on an organised trip said she would telephone my home and leave a message with regard to the length of time my order would take.

When I arrived home that evening there was a delightful message saying that the order would take seven to 10 days to complete and said she hoped I'd enjoyed my day out and that she'd be in touch again when the order was delivered.

As they don't deliver as far as Bradford she said they'd be delighted to deliver it to my cousin, who lives in Skipton. She went to great lengths to make arrangements for a suitable delivery and I must say my cousin telephoned and told me the cupboard was delightful.

It's lovely to see there are still shops where the customer comes first and where the staff are welcoming, courteous and obliging.

Give me a small business any day. They know how to work hard to earn their bread and butter - not like the out-of-town stores where the customer is just another face, you're left to either take a trolley and lift your own purchases into it, or if you order anything it can take weeks to arrive and then it's mass produced.

Long may the small shopkeeper survive and I know in this day and age they have a difficult job to compete with DIY, supermarket and shopping centres.

I would like to wish them every success with their business and I hope other small businesses will take heart from my comments.

Jennifer M Barclay,

Edgemoor Close,

East Brierley, Bradford.

Grumble

SIR - You could be forgiven were you to think me presumptuous in writing from the pleasant slopes of green Grassington to grumble about the big, bad world outside.

Yet I do live in it, and react with sadness to the news of riots in Oldham, Genoa, Palestine, Northern Ireland and Bradford.

I can't detect a common denominator except that of power to account for stoking up anger and seeking domination to destroy innocent targets. In most cases the true reason for inflicting hurt is concealed by some transitory false affinity with respectable concept such as a religion. And this pretends to justify violence even to the extreme of martyrdom.

In every case we can detect a common root which exposes a refusal to accept other persons as being humans who are equal. I simply cannot succeed in loving everyone as my neighbour; regretfully I have to admit that, despite trying hard, I find I can't get on with some people - mea culpa.

Even so, rejection never carries the risk of hurting them with petrol bombs. I cannot accept that urging everyone in the world to love their neighbour will guarantee a negation of conflict but what might be more realistic would be for us to settle for a doctrine that says "You are equal..I am equal".

I reckon I might just match up to this more reasonable and realistic philosophy. Would your readers think from so small a beginning that this would bear tangible fruit?

How good it would be to see T-shirts with the logo "UR=".

Donald Wilcox,

Garrs End Lane, Grassington.

Agnostic ideal

SIR - The appointment of an agnostic as head of religious broadcasting makes good sense. Only hearsay evidence is available on the existence of God and that from very untrustworthy people. Religion can be a force for good, but it is also a cause for great evil and always has been. Religion does not make people good people. An agnostic may be better at it.

William Boocock,

Wheatley Lane, Ilkley.

Anguish at cull

SIR - The date: Friday 20 July 2001. The place: Burnside, Skipton, North Yorkshire. The occasion - Mass murder. I didn't see it happen (I didn't dare, I had a fear and dread of witnessing such barbarism).

But I heard! Oh yes I heard, and the sounds cut through my heart like a knife! What I did see however, later on that day, was the television report.

I saw the anguish, frustration, and pain etched on the faces of the people who were present. I saw Mike Doyle pontificating on how he thought the people should be behaving, at a situation he thought should be regarded as a funeral. What strange and dreadful funerals this man must have attended.

I (and I'm glad to say it) have never attended a funeral where the deceased was unceremoniously dumped in an undignified heap and then carted off in a truck!

Those gentle trusting animals deserved better than that, and so did the people who reacted strongly to this vile act. Their reactions came from the heart, these people have lived alongside those animals for years. Some may have even seen them born, seen them grow, have their own young. But whatever the case they were undoubtedly part of their lives, a part that has now been cruelly and horribly taken from them.

We are only simple, caring, animal-loving country types, what do we matter to power hungry politicians, hard hearted bureaucrats and the rest of their ilk?

What chance do we have? I opened my bedroom curtains the following morning and as I gazed across to the Crescent and in to the now empty, and oh so quiet fields beyond, I shed a tear. It is hard to believe we are living in the 21st century.

Sandra Booth,

Branch Road, Skipton.

Disregard for law

SIR - I felt I had to write in after watching Look North and reading about the protest about the culling of animals on Burnside.

People bearing banners saying "jab not cull" put even more animals in danger of contacting foot and mouth disease by blatantly sending their children into fields, where incidentally there should be a £5,000 fine for trespassing, then proceeded to try to get their views across by letting the animals lick their hands - one of the main ways to spread the disease, supposedly to look like they care!

This total disregard for the law is appalling.

As for the lady who didn't know what to tell her children where all the cows had gone. Might I suggest she discusses it over a meat and potato pie, or when they next visit their local burger bar.

I'm not a vegetarian and I attended the same meeting as their spokesman, Mrs Purcell, where a vet, who had animal interests at heart, said that vaccination isn't the answer and explained clearly why. And, if she was listening, all the farmers who attended said the culls on their property were being carried out humanely.

I too find this culling awful, but it is a necessary evil. These people are letting their hearts rule their heads.

What do they think normally happens to "their" sheep and cows. Let's not think too deeply about that.

Name and address supplied

Ignorance

SIR - regarding the article in the Craven Herald, when an anonymous farmer's wife was criticising "a group of so-called do-gooders who do not know what they are talking about".

Actually, two of the leaders of the "do-gooders" have had their farms culled and are talking from bitter experience.

Many of the other protestors, including myself, have been to the anti-culling meetings to find out as much as we can about the disease and how we can resist being contiguously culled. If our farm is culled we will lose over 400 animals and I wish to stop this if possible.

How many farmers under the age of 45 knew anything about foot and mouth disease before this outbreak? I am well over 45 and I knew very little. I have learned a lot by attending the anti-culling meetings, especially about vaccination.

At one meeting, Dr Ruth Watkins was one of the speakers. She was a retired doctor who now farms in Wales. She had been a doctor in a children's hospital in London specialising in infectious diseases. She likened the foot and mouth epidemic to the polio epidemic in this country in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

This was conquered by vaccination - how many cases of polio do we see today? She declares that the present epidemic could be conquered in the same way at a fraction of the cost of the culling, which does not seem to be working as we are still having new cases in Cumbria, despite all the culling there.

We vaccinate against orf, foot rot, scab and various clostridial diseases, so why not against foot and mouth?

At the meeting when the two Ministry men were present, one of our local vets stood up to defend one of his colleagues, who was being criticised for his part in one of the culls. He was more or less told to get another job if he couldn't stand the pace. This, I thought, was totally uncalled for as it must be a horrible experience to attend a cull at a farm where you know the farmer and have attended the animals.

I have dealt with the Kingsway Vet Group, Skipton, for over 25 years and have always found them caring and considerate, especially when I have had to have animals put to sleep.

Betty Brayshay,

Black Lane Ends.

Blooming effort

SIR - May we take the opportunity on behalf of the acting Village in Bloom Group, to thank the residents of Addingham, pupils and staff of the primary school, businesses in the village and the staff of Bradford Met for all the effort getting the village ready for the summer judging of Yorkshire in Bloom last month.

The judges seemed suitably impressed with the village and we wait in trepidation for the results in mid August.

We held our first general meeting this week and the invitation is open for anyone to help in any way. We have a lovely village and it would be pleasing to see it nice all year round, not just for the judging.

For any information do not hesitate to contact myself on 830433 or at the address below.

Alan Haigh,

41 Moor Park Drive,

Addingham.