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Talk but no action

If you wanted any further proof that the Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group is anything other than a ‘talking shop’ you need look no further than the recent anodyne nonsense emanating from the lips of its director of nursing on the situation with regard to the IMH fiasco (SA, June 28).

Leaving aside the claim that following the worst examples of the fiasco the CCG held a ‘learning event’ to better understand the reasons for their failure, we now are being told that the CCG is ‘gathering information on the practices’.

This implies that the contract was given to IMH without ‘information on the practices’ which of course could well be the case, after all the people who sold their businesses to IMH were also intrinsically involved with the CCG.

Perhaps the CCG was and still is a cosy cabal of clinicians supporting clinicians.

It certainly doesn’t require a brain surgeon to determine what is needed to correct the lack of telephone support which is a logistics issue. As to whether or not the practices can recruit and retain doctors and other needed clinical staff is another matter.

The CCG may claim that “There’s a lot of work being done” – I think the public view is that there is a lot of ‘talking but very little action’

Des Morgan, Caraway Drive, Swindon

Reply proved my point

One thing I wasn’t expecting as a result of my previous letter lamenting the rise in hate crimes was a reply that perfectly proves my point.

Firstly, Craig Halliday (SA, July 3), let’s look at the 2012 Olympic Games. A simple search on the internet tells me that the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games cost £8.77 billion, however this brought with it a £9.9 billion boost to trade. If you add in all the urban regeneration, and the extra jobs that came with it from organisers to caterers to cleaners, I’d say that was a massive benefit to a lot of people. People felt inspired too: many people took up some form of exercise thus improving the overall health of our nation.

Secondly, Craig, can I ask who exactly was I insulting in my letter? Did I specify any particular group of people? I said there has been a rise in hatred since the referendum, but I did not, and would not ever say that “all leavers are racist” as you have claimed, because I know they are not. I did not say that people should not voice their opinions, in fact I welcome different opinions. I am not an advocate of censorship. There is a massive difference between free speech and hate speech. I do not welcome hate.

It’s strange, Craig, that you have turned the conversation to violence, since you seem to hate it so much. The remain MPs that have police protection have received credible death threats. It is interesting to note that no leave MPs have received any credible death threats and therefore do not need police protection.

While I respect Jo Brand, I do think her “joke” was inappropriate considering the current political climate and I did not find it funny. The police did investigate, however they did not consider Jo’s words to be a credible threat and took no further action. She also apologised for it.

I would also be interested to know, Craig, exactly how I am “throwing violence”. I am absolutely not a violent person. Can you show me the exact words from my original letter that endorse violence? Who am I threatening? I am a peace-loving person, and as you didn’t quite get the gist of my original letter, I’d still quite like all hatred and violence to stop.

Zoe McCormick, West Swindon