Trust's high standards

AS A local Swindon resident, a local GP for more than 20 years and the NHS Swindon CCG Clinical chairman elected to represent all 26 Swindon GP practices serving nearly a quarter of a million patients in Swindon, Shrivenham and the surrounding area, I wanted to write and say how unsurprised I was to hear of the high quality of the services provided by Great Western Hospital NHS Foundation Trust following the recent CQC inspection.

The comments made by the CQC regarding how they found universally kind, caring, committed and compassionate staff fits entirely with the overwhelmingly positive feedback I and many colleagues regularly receive from the majority of patients who clearly hold the Great Western Hospital in very high regard indeed.

While any detailed inspection will inevitably highlight some areas which require improvement, I feel very reassured by the observation that the dignity of patients is protected and patients are treated with compassion and kindness and with empathy and honesty.

I am not at all surprised that the recent inspection report highlights 38 areas of good and 19 areas of outstanding practice.

The trust readily acknowledges and accepts that some improvements are required.

The hospital management team, in my view, are very competently led by the trust’s chief executive Nerissa Vaughan.

And I have no doubt that, in the ongoing spirit of continuing to operate in a highly open and transparent culture, they will drive through any required improvements.

I am reassured that they will continue to provide hospital and community services that are of a quality that the staff and residents of Wiltshire, Swindon, Shrivenham and the surrounding area can be justifiably proud.

I trust that all of the staff and the management team at GWH can take a moment to proudly reflect on the many identified areas of good and outstanding practice while we work closely with the trust to continue the work that has already begun to further improve services from the high standard we have come to expect and receive from such a committed, caring and compassionate team.

DR PETER CROUCH Swindon

How did BT get so bad?

WHILE reading the business section of the Telegraph I chanced upon the item about BT. They mentioned in the article the amount of dissatisfaction with the performance of BT by its many users, of which I am not one.

The question is, why is BT so expensive and so badly managed, leaving a large proportion of its customer base extremely dissatisfied?

I am with TalkTalk and, although they are far from perfect, they do give value for money.

I get all my phone call in the UK to landlines free. Additionally, I get a lot of calls to landlines in other parts of the world free.

The only thing is these calls are subject to a maximum call time of 59 minutes.

I also have TalkTalk's broadband and this does just about all I want it to do.

They are not as expensive even though I have to pay the line rental, which I believe goes to BT.

Why is it with all the income BT has it is so expensive and the employees are mostly unhelpful and inconsiderate to their customers?

BT are riding on the success of the company before it was privatised.

Their service is no better than anyone else’s but they appear to believe that it is their “right” to be able to charge high amounts for a mediocre performance. Join the real world, BT, and give customers value for money.

DAVID COLLINS Blake Crescent, Swindon Demand for GPs is high MONDAY’S Advertiser focused on a recent planning application for shops at Redhouse being turned down despite being recommended for approval.

The article mentioned a report that stated a doctors’ surgery was not viable due to lack of demand.

I’m struggling to understand how such a report would come to such a conclusion given that the average wait for a GP appointment across north and West Swindon seems to be a fortnight.

This wait will only increase as the area’s population expands and more pressure is placed on existing surgeries.

Once again the attitude of key Swindon councillors seems to be short-sighted to the point that new developments end up with a lack of key facilities that will support growing communities.

Coun Tomlinson also makes the point that parking would have been an issue had the development gone ahead yet all over north Swindon main access roads are now blighted by residents choosing to park at the front of their houses as the developments only offer parking and garages at the rear.

Council planning officers and committees are ultimately responsible for these congestion problems having approved the developers’ designs in the initial planning stages.

We heard only recently how overstretched Accident and Emergency at GWH is and a proportion of this has to be attributed to the fact that people cannot get a GP appointment.

M WYLIE Lomond Close, Swindon

Gallery plan misguided

IN REACTION to Mr Spry’s final paragraph (Advertiser, January 21) what is a new museum/art gallery likely to achieve in terms of increased visitors to the town?

The council is failing to improve the quality of Swindon – with misguided traffic schemes, a plethora of cafes/restaurants which will surely struggle to break even overall in the very best of economic up-turn and a lamentable failure to preserve whatever historic buildings remain.

I often wonder if the current council is hoping to encourage the return of a Labour administration, under which the decline began?

JOHN LISTER Old Town, Swindon