Letters: Simple solution to cure hospital car parking woes

I THINK it is now very clear why NHS Lothian is in such a state when it has people like John Jack in a management role (NHS warned scrapping of ERI parking fees 'will be disaster', News, April 4).

If he is unable to see how to solve the parking problem I would suggest he is unfit for his post.

For the last four weeks I have had to suffer the car parking at St John's in Livingston and it is chaos, with visitors driving round and round looking for a space, with their cars pumping more and more CO2 into the atmosphere.

The answer is simple. The barriers are still operational, bouncing up and down as vehicles approach (how much is this costing?). The ticket machines are still in the entrance. So convert the machines to take a token.

The tokens could be distributed to patients on doctors' rounds. Patients and visitors could enter the car park and visit their friends and relatives in the wards.

Patients could give visitors who require to get out of the car park a token to get a ticket to open the barrier to get out of the car park.

With no token and no legitimate explanation as to why you were using the car park, there could be a £70 fine to let you out as some supermarkets do. Problem solved. Maybe I should apply to be Director of Facilities with the NHS!
Michael M Boyle-Ronaldson, Cockles, East Lothian

Medical data not in safe hands at NHS
I HAVE little doubt Martin Egan is sincere in his statement that "NHS Lothian is absolutely committed to protecting patient confidentiality" (Patients' details are taken seriously, Letters, April 6).

Unfortunately, the safety of our personal health records is not down merely to "robust security measures" and whether or not data encryption techniques are rigorously in use, since such systems and techniques can always be broken into or otherwise got round.

Fundamentally, the root of the problem lies in the mass centralisation of our personal electronic records, a flawed policy recklessly promoted by the present government. In this centralised form the data is open to hackers and identity thieves worldwide, as well possibly as some staff members with an unprofessional interest in furtive "browsing". By contrast, the old trusted "locked filing cabinet" represents an absolute haven of confidentiality.

It concerns me that I have never been asked to give my consent to having my confidential medical details transferred from my local doctor's surgery to a vast centralised database in some location I know not where. A database which will then be accessible to countless numbers of medical staff. I regard this as a most serious breach of the Hippocratic Oath and the doctor-patient confidentiality that I believe we should all be able to rely on.

Until such serious fundamental issues are properly confronted and dealt with I am afraid that I shall never be able to accept that my medical data is any longer safe in the hands of the NHS.
Dr John Welford, Boat Green, Edinburgh

Where rescue cash for banks could go
IF the amount of money the UK government had pumped into the banks was divided by the number of households in the UK, it comes to around £100,000 per household. If the government had instead given that money to those households, what would the householders have done with it?

&149 Paid off all or part of their mortgage, thus: transferring the money to the banks anyway; but also reducing risk of house repossession; reducing the effect of unemployment on security of housing; stimulating the economy by increasing disposable income.

• Bought new cars, thus stimulating the car industry.

• Bought more stuff, thus stimulating the high street.

• Saved it, thus putting it back into the banks anyway.

As it is, it's gone into a black hole which we're all going to be expected to fill eventually.
Duncan Paterson, East Lothian

News helps clear up the rubbish
ON receipt of our new recycling calendar I momentarily hesitated before e-mailing the department which sent it to point out an anomaly with the dates.

I hesitated because the first red bin pick-up was dated April 1.

But nevertheless, just in case, I went ahead with the e-mail.

By Monday I had received no reply.

However, thanks to the Edinburgh Evening News (April 6)I am aware of the blunder.

I am also grateful to Councillor Aldridge's pleasure that we in the Southside are so very much "on-side" for recycling.

Especially as the councillor and friends have also added into the target of 30 per cent recycling of such waste.

Where would we be with the council's additional assistance in fulfilling these targets?

The extra cost will, of course, be kept as an in-house secret.
Tom Reilly, Esslemont Road, Edinburgh

Difficult to grieve with celeb circus
OH what a circus, oh what a show.

While I have every sympathy for Jade Goody, her sons and family, Saturday was just like a scene from Evita.

She is now buried let her rest in peace, and give us some peace.

Others have lost loved ones including myself and are trying to come to terms and move on but can't with the circus that has been going on for the past few weeks.
P Siosal, Salisbury Road, Edinburgh