Police collusion just doesn’t tally

I HEARTILY endorse Stephen Cragg’s call (Legislation update, Feb 14) to end the practice of police officers colluding in the making of their notebooks. I have spent many frustrating and time-wasting hours on the bench listening to identical canteen evidence. Surely in this e-age in which we live, it would be possible for officers to sit at a word-processor in separate booths to compile their account of an incident. This would not only speed up the process and get them back on the job quicker, but they might be able to “refresh their memories” from them more easily. I have encountered many who cannot decipher their own writing, nor can the lawyers involved. Improved justice might result.
Beth Cooper JP, Kent

A bit rich for taxpayers

I DO FEEL sorry for people struggling to pay council tax on a family home out of their pension (Over to you, Feb 21). Yet it is not the job of the tax/benefit system to subsidise individuals so that their offspring can ultimately receive unearned, inherited wealth. I suggest that older people who are asset-rich but cash-poor be allowed some form of council tax exemption while they are alive, to be recovered from their estate on death.
Tim Mickleburgh, Grimsby

Evaluation: facts come first

THE OPEN approach to evaluation favoured by John Brazier chimes well with the ethos of a democratic society (Public Opinion, Feb 21). But this is very much the ideal rather than the reality at present. Understandably, many organisations undertake evaluation in the hope of securing future funding in a competitive climate. It is not always appreciated that first and foremost evaluation must reflect the facts.
Dr Gary Kitchen, director, Get Heard Consultancy

NHS dentists did us proud

MY WIFE and I are pensioners who have relied on the NHS dental service since childhood and we both have our own teeth to demonstrate the quality of the care that we have received. The new dental contract now being imposed by the Government (Over to you, Feb 14) seems to be a disaster already — my wife’s dentist has given notice of his withdrawal from the NHS, and has forced patients to leave or to pay over £120 a year for nothing more than two check-ups and scale and polish sessions, which currently cost £18.40 a year on the NHS. Any extra treatment is at an unquantified cost, ie, at the discretion of the dentist with no cap on cost.
R. M. Hancock, Raglan

THE headline “Brushing’s no cure for dentistry’s ills” is wrong (Over to you, Feb 14). It is the cure: issue all schoolchildren with an electric toothbrush and encourage them to brush before and after school each day, and eventually we won’t need dentists. I bought one 45 years ago: the best investment I ever made. If children can afford mobile phones they can afford electric toothbrushes.
Peter Kinsley, London

We need coherence in care

THE Prime Minister believes that the professional press has been lukewarm in its response to the White Paper (Blair and Hewitt unite to defend White Paper, Feb 21). He is right and so too is the professional press, which has accurately gauged the mood of its readers.

Those with long memories remember previous promises of a shift to primary care and prevention, which never materialised. The prospects of their doing so are less this year than ever before because the government policies on foundation hospitals and payment by results run counter to its declared objectives.

What we need is coherence in public policy. This means saying openly that we have too many acute beds and that some hospitals need to close. After the bloody nose administered and repeated by the voters of Kidderminster, not many in the field believe that the Government is up for that degree of honesty.
Terry Bamford, director, Social Perspectives Network

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