Sir, There are three separate NHS news items in your issue of August 6 which illustrate some of the contradictions of that service. On page 11, a visit by the WAG health minister is described at which complacency and self-congratulation abound, with the chairman of the Local Health Board fulsome in his praise of the minister 'for the modernisation of our services here in Pembrokeshire which will improve our health and well-being'. What rot. On page 12, we learn that about half of a £1m WAG investment in NHS dental services will actually go to dentists; the rest will go to the local NHS bureaucracy. Nothing new there. Does it occur to these people that if we sacked all the bureaucrats, then we might get a half-decent dental service? On page 35, News from Pembrokeshire Community Health Council is unremitting gloom, with news that our GPs will no longer be available evenings and weekends after September 1. Fear not dear reader, for if you are unlucky enough to fall ill 'out of hours' we are assured by the Local Health Board that 'the handover should not affect patients...' However, the LHB plans for out-of-hours cover by 'Pembrokeshire doctors on call' will only apply to dire emergencies, so how can that 'not affect' the huge number of people who genuinely need a doctor, yet are not at death's door? Answer: they must treat minor injuries at home, seek advice from a chemist or NHS Direct, wait until Monday morning or go to the Accident and Emergency at Withybush, which the hospital chairman acknowledges to be 'completely inadequate'. So while the minister and her adoring bureaucrats congratulate themselves on a job well done, the rest of us would do better to forget the NHS and sign up with their local vet. At least a vet will come out, any day and any night, for a reasonable fee which most people would be grateful to pay. And people can choose their vet and get to know him/her.
Richard Shepherd,
Whalecwm House, The Ferry, Cosheston.