Readers' letters: Susan sends wrong signal on hospital

Susan Dalgety is guilty of over simplifying the issues surrounding the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Glasgow (Evening News 6 December).

The individual cases referred to are distressing and tragic but an independent expert review published in June 2020 into the deaths four years ago found that the link between two patients with Cryptococcus infection and bird-borne carriage of the organism does not have a sound evidential basis.

Para 9.12.18 also states, “Theories, hypotheses and possibilities have been transmitted and discussed in the media and Scottish Parliament in a way that has given them an undeserved provenance”.

Since the deaths four years ago, numerous improvement measures have already been put in place and there is an ongoing public inquiry into the hospital.

In the pre-Covid year up to March 2020, the number of patients who caught acquired infections at the Glasgow hospital was less than the Scottish average of one per cent. To put this into context, the average in Europe is three per cent and over seven per cent in England.

No wonder 23 senior clinicians wrote last week to outline their “immense disappointment and frustration” at the way their hospitals are being portrayed in Parliament and in the media.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh.

Dublin shows what Edinburgh can be

As a native and long-time resident of Edinburgh, but with ‘in-laws’ in Dublin, I am a frequent visitor to Ireland’s capital but have become increasingly struck by the diverging contrast between the fortunes of the two cities in the last two-three years.

It is hard not to compare confident, cosmopolitan, connected Dublin, with its ‘can do’ attitude, strong economy (the Irish economy is the fastest growing in the Eurozone), increasing position as one of Europe’s main financial /business hubs post-Brexit, and its deep and long-established links with government/ industry in the EU and US, with Edinburgh’s pale imitation of a capital city (with few, if any, of the aforementioned attributes).

But hey, back in 2014 the citizens of Scotland’s so-called capital voted for it NOT to be a capital city – so well done fellow Edinburgh folks, I guess you got what you voted for!

However, it’s worth the short 200 mile trip to Dublin now and then to see what the alternative future may have looked like for our lovely city. See it and weep.

Mr D Jamieson, Edinburgh.

Poll dancing

So, Nicola Sturgeon posts details on social media of the latest Scottish independence opinion poll showing a majority in favour of independence.

However, she knows full well that it's always polling trends that matter, not one offs - and 12 out of 14 polls since her victory in the May Holyrood election show a majority opposed to Sturgeon's UK break-up plans.

Martin Redfern, Melrose.

Eternal Covid

Perhaps I am unduly pessimistic, but the news of this new Covid strain, the apparently deadly Omicron, has made me stop and think.

After this latest outbreak has been brought under control, as it surely will in time, are the bookies taking bets that another will not rapidly pop up from somewhere else?

Despite being double jabbed and having had the booster, I am beginning to wonder if we will ever get back to any real normality.

Past dictators and mass murderers appear benign in comparison.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.