Letters to the Editor

SIR - I had occasion to visit a close family member in Bradford Royal Infirmary, recovering from a cancer operation.

When visiting was over, I was invited to have a cup of tea with other patients in the chemotherapy suite as they were undergoing another of their post-operative treatments.

What I saw and experienced so impressed me I felt it needed to be shouted from the rooftops.

I arrived as the nurses were busy giving patients their very varied individual treatments, involving potent, even dangerous drugs.

The atmosphere was not coldly, super-efficiently clinical, but it felt as if friends were meeting up with valued friends, with no loss to the necessary high degree of professional care.

There was one more highly-valued member of the team - a volunteer hostess to see to the welfare of patients, carers, staff and visitors by serving tea, coffee and sandwiches.

Not mass-produced sandwiches in packets, but tastefully and temptingly served with choice and suitably garnished.

The service was like the standard one would expect in Betty's of Harrogate.

In terms of examination grades, BRI chemotherapy suite deserves not an A, nor even an A* but A*****; while in the realm of catering it would have been worth nothing less than cordon bleu.

Vera Ward, Ashbourne Oval, Bradford.

Planners are right

SIR - So Councillor Cooke is annoyed that his "master plan", costing taxpayers £500,000, is being (according to him) damaged by a planning decision to allow a development to take place on the site previously occupied by Charlie Brown's (T&A, January 7).

The planners, despite Coun Cooke's views, have, on this occasion, got it right as they do not want a situation whereby local residents, including children in pushchairs and the elderly (often in wheelchairs), have to cross the extremely busy Otley Road to get to the bus station.

As a regular shopper in Shipley, I find it to be an extremely pleasant experience with the bus station being ideally placed within the heart of the town and, more importantly, in a very safe environment!

I suggest that Coun Cooke concentrates his efforts in satisfying the wishes and aspirations of the taxpayers of Bradford rather than pursuing his own objectives.

They do, after all, pay his wages!

E Mills, Wrose Mount, Wrose.

Campaign goes on

SIR - Government press releases would have us believe hospitals are getting cleaner, and hospital acquired infections such as MRSA are under control. But is this the true picture?

MRSA Action UK is a charity set up by people who have either suffered from MRSA, or lost a family member to MRSA. Our aim is to raise public awareness and campaign for safer standards within the NHS.

Government figures suggest that 5,000 deaths a year are attributed to MRSA - 14 deaths a day - many of which are avoidable. We believe the actual figure is far higher, as many instances of MRSA go unreported, and many death certificates do not record MRSA as a factor of death.

Several members of MRSA Action UK will be featured in the forthcoming Mischief: A Dirty Weekend programme on January 19 (BBC3, 10.30pm) in which the standards of cleanliness in some of the UK's top hospitals will be under the spotlight.

The programme casts doubt on Government claims regarding hygiene standards within the NHS.

If you or your family have been affected by MRSA, or for further information please visit our website, www.mrsaactionuk.com.

Phip Woodhatch, MRSA Action UK, Cove Road, Fleet, Hampshire.

An exciting idea

SIR - The possibility of Bradford and Calderdale working together on a new scheme for handling household waste to increase the recycling rate and reduce landfill is to be encouraged.

The combined tonnage should excite some of the big waste companies and it is to be hoped that they come up with one of the simple, straightforward and low-tech answers that involves households making decisions and provides employment opportunities.

There are many fine examples nationwide of good-quality kerbside collection schemes that feed a mechanical sorting system and this is preferable to the high-tech heat or chemical solutions that involve large amounts of capital and few jobs and export our investment to the shareholders of the companies outside the district.

Keith Thomson, Heights Lane, Bradford.

All-knowing God

SIR - Re the letter "Ignorant clergy" (T&A, January 10), it is clear Keith Hustler is very concerned that the removal of gravestones from Great Horton Cemetery will deny God the chance to locate the bodies buried there and resurrect them on the Day of Judgement.

May I point out a small piece from the Bible. God is all-knowing, and even knows how many hair strands a person has on their head.

God therefore is an all-knowing being who exists at a high spiritual level, and would not need old gravestones in a Bradford cemetery to help him find his way to Earth.

As for the departed souls, they are already in spirit as Jesus points out in the New Testament.

As for the Day of Judgement, mankind has set his own day for that. Why would God waste his time the state this world is in?

R Halliday, Crag Road, Shipley.

Forgive we must

SIR - Unlike Gary Lorriman (T&A, January 5) I did not hear Archbishop Rowan's Christmas address.

There is something in each and every one of us that finds it very difficult to forgive murderers and violent criminals, particularly when the victims are children, the elderly and the most vulnerable.

In this respect, forgiveness, which is seen as a Christian virtue, is very hard to implement.

However, Christ enduring the pain and humiliation of the cross found space in his heart to forgive the penitent thief. He also forgave those who put him on the cross.

The attitude of the thief is interesting - he acknowledged his guilt and did not say his punishment was wrong.

Christians can show and must show forgiveness but just laws which are beneficial for a decent society must be upheld and respected. St John in his gospel tells us that as followers of Christ we have to live in the world but not be of the world. That includes surpressing one natural instinct to respond to evil deeds by meting out tit-for-tat response.

It is because we have chosen to reject the word of God that the world is in such a mess with suffering everywhere.

Christopher J Ingham, Park Lane, Keighley.