Letter: Healthy concerns

AS A GP who worked in the Easterhouse area of Glasgow for 31 years, I was very concerned to read the article by Tom Miers ("Fiddling while Scotland Burns", 6 July) in which he draws attention to the three major problems facing Scotland at present.

The first is the appalling level of social deprivation, with ill-health, low life expectancy, long-term family unemployment, poor diet, drug abuse and crime. Almost as important is the fact that nearly a fifth of children leaving school are barely literate and numerate.

Third, despite the huge sums of money poured into the health service, it seems that it is inefficient as Scotland's health statistics are so poor. Hard decisions have to be made, not popular ones.

A typical popular decision was to keep open casualty departments against medical advice. The 24 million spent on Monklands A&E could have paid for eight primary care units, including three health centres and a community X-ray unit.

I agree that the prescription payment scheme that was scrapped was unfair, but I do not see why well-off people need to get all prescriptions free.

It is important that the SNP should face up to the Christie Commission's report into public service reform and not kick it into the long grass. I strongly feel that the SNP has a duty to Scotland to tackle these problems first and worry about independence later.

HUGH M MACKENZIE

Bonnethill Road

Pitlochry, Perthshire