NHS 111 needs to be manned by trained paramedics instead of a risk-averse algorithm

As I recover from emergency surgery, I have time to ponder and put into perspective my treatment from the NHS. As always (nearly) everyone on the front line was efficient and caring – after all, it was not their fault that I waited 10 hours for an ambulance.

Since some GPs have locked their doors from the inside, the NHS 111 service has become part of the front line. Yet the algorithm that controls NHS 111 is so risk-averse that it classes minor ailments or relatively trivial injuries out of proportion, probably “just to be on the safe side”. It is this that is clogging up the ambulance service and A&E departments and there must be excess deaths as a consequence.

NHS 111 needs to be manned not by a call handler using the algorithm but by a trained paramedic. Six hours after my initial 999 call and two further phone calls later, I finally spoke to a trained professional who correctly assessed my urgent need and the response required.

Anna Taylor

Sunbury-on-Thames

It is clear that a means of raising more from taxes will be required to avoid a catastrophe in the NHS and social care, and this will mean breaking an election promise.

Fortunately, we have a prime minister who has the talent required to lie about having done it.

Ashley Herbert

Huddersfield

Like Tom Peck’s, my garden is dominated by Dahlias so the early summer is a bit disappointing, worried I’d got it wrong I dashed off to the garden centre to buy even more bedding plants.

Then about early August, the advanced buds appeared, followed quickly by blooms. Unlike Tom, I can never remember their names or even which colours to expect. In a few short weeks, the garden was full to bursting with the most vivid colours, shapes and sizes. Visitors are amazed at the display and wonder about the amount of work involved, which I accept graciously.

However I cheat, I never dig up my tubers unless they need dividing, after the first frost I cut them back and cover them with a generous amount of manure and, although living in East Lancashire, I have not lost a single plant. One of the joys of late spring is to walk the garden and see the next year’s shoots appear through the muck.

A final tip, instead of re-bar supports I use green plastic-covered wire fencing cut off the roll to form a hoop and join with cable ties to form the required diameter. I place over the plant before it grows, and as the plant grows through the wire the support disappears.

I’m sure others will have comments on the Dahlia, the queen of the garden, so enjoy the best Dahlia weeks of this summer and look forward to next year’s surprises.

Don’t forget the pleasure of late evening deadheading.

Gary Kirk

Burnley

Did the lorry park near Ashford (a local eyesore) need to be built on such a massive scale to deal with the congestion expected to arise at the Channel ports from Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit?

A proper risk assessment would surely have revealed the slump in EU trade that has occurred and its contribution to the shortage of drivers, considerably reducing the volume of traffic?

The county’s white cliffs of Dover were immortalised by Vera Lynn. Thanks to the government, it now has a huge white elephant – not something to sing about.

Roger Hinds

Surrey

Supermarket shelves are looking sparse, the NHS is short of specimen tubes and now we're told that there are too few drivers to distribute flu vaccines.

It has to be admitted that the last 18 months have been a very difficult time for any government; no one could have known how the pandemic would progress. But there have been numerous predictable errors of judgement along the way, notably allowing Cheltenham Festival to go on last year, the delays in lockdowns and in barring planes from India, and the Christmas debacle. Not to mention the blatant assumption that there can be one rule for Tory ministers and cronies, and another for all the rest. And many of us had been saying for a long time that Brexit would inevitably be a shot in the foot.

The government is now claiming that Afghan refugees should be accommodated, but without any plans to expedite their residential status or support local councils in housing them.

Boris Johnson’s two prime motivations seem to be to stay in power and to get everyone to love him. These aims are often incompatible; the pursuance of them constitutes a serious flaw in a leader.

But unless enough Tory MPs stand up, do the decent thing and rescue us from the mess he has made and continues to make it seems that, for now,  there is nothing to be done. Our system provides for no other escape.

Our only hope for the future is that some form of proportionality is instituted into our voting system.

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire