Physician Associates are a positive addition

Here in Skipton we have three Physician Associates working at Fisher Medical Centre. They are science graduates who have undertaken an additional two years medical training and examination to become qualified.

They provide a much-valued additional layer of service dealing with a raft of common ailments, thereby freeing up the doctors to deal with patients with more clinically challenging or complex needs.

In practice, the Physician Associates work alongside the duty doctor who is always there for them to confer with and sign their prescriptions, so there is always back-up.

This is not so different to the way medical teams work in hospitals with junior doctors and registrars doing a lot of the initial investigation and the consultant only being brought in where necessary.

In fact, Physicians Associates are not so new. They have been practising in the USA and Canada for almost 50 years where they are able to sign prescriptions and in some instances perform minor surgery. Indeed, one of the Physician Associates at Fisher was recruited from Alaska where they were one of a few qualified medics who worked in a very large rural area north of Anchorage.

In my role as both a patient and Patient Participation Group member, where we act as the practice’s “critical friend”, I can confirm that the introduction of Physician Associates has generally been seen as a positive addition to the service provided for patients at Fisher Medical Centre.

Change is difficult for most of us but I think we should welcome this initiative to make better use of our increasingly stretched National Health Service resources and not judge it until we have given it a try.

Alison Linden

Gargrave

SIR - On a recent visit to see my mother in Clapham, I was very interested in read in her Craven Herald the article about trials biker Dougie Lampkin and his family.

It brought back memories of when I was a young girl watching Arthur and Martin Lampkin motorbike scrambling at Clapham Sports Day, which was a great day out for villagers and visitors alike.

In the evening, the prizes were awarded in the village hall and I was very honoured to present Arthur with a bunch of flowers, which I am sure made his day!

I’m presuming Alfie, Fraser and Will are their grandsons and have obviously inherited their biking skills. It makes me feel old wondering where 50-plus years have gone.

Mrs Kath Lambert

Dale Avenue,

Longton

SIR - I was astonished to read Councillor English’s comments regarding the health and safety of our refuse collectors.

I surmise from his comment that “refuse collectors are refuse collectors and that is what they are employed to do” to mean that because they are refuse collectors they are not entitled to have health and safety put in place to protect them.

Has Councillor English forgotten that they are humans and have rights and entitlements just the same as everyone else? I wouldn’t be so discourteous to say that people who have desk jobs have more ridiculous H&S than anyone else. Sometimes H&S does seem a little extreme in all jobs but it is place for a reason - to protect everyone - yes even refuse collectors, Councillor English!

Has Councillor English actually shadowed the collectors in Skipton to see what the job involves before spouting off about how ridiculous it is? If 20 per cent of residents’ bins are to be moved long distances to the bin wagon I would imagine that is an awful lot of heavy bins especially as we now have two weeks of rubbish in our bins.

I believe there is already an assist system in place and his comments regarding little old ladies I find quite offensive. I am perhaps one of those “little old ladies” but I am willing, and thankfully able, to move my bin. When I get to the stage where I am unable to, I know I will be able to arrange for the assist system. Is it really worth such a fuss? We make the rubbish so we should be prepared to help to get rid of it.

I imagine the job is extremely physical and demanding and it’s about time we appreciated that fact.

Mrs C Jones

Skipton

SIR - I was amazed to read in your lead article on August 28 that bin men may be told to “stop shifting wheelie bins ... to reduce the risk of employees of sustaining injuries from manual handling” following Health and Safety Executive guidelines.

I’m also amazed to read that “20 per cent of Craven resident who live in inaccessible place have their bins taken to a waste lorry”.

Cllr Paul English was reported as saying that it seemed strange that there was, apparently, too much risk for trained professionals to move bins but little old ladies can!

I am one of those little old ladies. At 79 and quite frail, I have to cart all my rubbish - every little scrap - down to a collection point one mile away from my house.

Lifting the heavy green lid on the big rubbish containers is beyond me and I rely on the kindness of neighbours in Winterburn to lift the sacks into the bins for me, having had to leave the sacks beside the bins.

I pay my full council tax but in the 23 years I have lived here, I have never been offered collection by Craven District Council. Although I live up a farm track, my house is completely accessible. Calor Gas and Tesco delivery vans have no difficulty in finding me or negotiating the track.

On behalf of little old ladies, surely someone can talk sense.

Paul Florentine, Craven’s waste and recycling manager, is quoted as saying that the council had been working with the HSE to ensure the processes adopted provide the best service to its customers.

Prove it!

Jenny Cunnington

Winterburn

Sir - I am writing further to my letter in this newspaper in April 2014 when I raised concerns that the 957C school bus from Silsden to Skipton was being withdrawn. This came as a complete surprise to its users as North Yorkshire County Council failed to consult or inform any of the people using this service.

However, I am now letting your readers know that starting this week there will be a new bus service. Transdev have very kindly agreed to put on the 966 service. Please note this a new route for the Silsden children and will not follow the old bus route so I advise users to look carefully at the new bus timetable and to also note the new bus times.

The bus will leave Silsden a bit earlier in the morning and return slightly later at tea time.

I would like to thank Transdev for stepping in to the breach and offering this vital direct bus service to the many Silsden children who attend the Skipton schools and Craven College.

Rebecca Whitaker

Buckden Court, Silsden

SIR - For our special 40th ruby wedding trip, we wanted to go on a ride in our two seater micro car to Malham Cove to see the fantastic views around the area.

Well, it is a breathtaking wow around every sharp bend. Great fun in a small car.

Then we dropped down to have a look around Settle. We met the nicest people at the Tourist Information Centre and very pleasant people in the shops and at the Settle Social Club car boot sale. It was a trip to remember for our ruby wedding.

Well done the people of Settle. You make visitors welcome.

D Vickers,

Cragg Avenue,

Leeds

SIR - The other day I walked along the canal bank from Harvey’s Fisheries (previously Eastwoods) towards the bridge going to Roughaw Close on Keighley Road .

The first thing I managed to do, while moving to one side to let some people pass, was to step in a pile of dog mess. At the same time, five cyclists appeared going in my direction and I had to point this out to them so they didn’t ride through it as well.

A bit further on I came across four bags of dog poo leaning against the wall and further on still were two green bags that have actually been there for some time now. Along with several dollops of the stuff along the path, all in all my walk was not as pleasant as a canalside walk should be.

At the bridge end there is a dog poo bin, often decorated with bags on the ground around it (and sometimes cartons and bottles) but at least these dog owners have tried to use the facilities provided.

It is the ones that walk the opposite way to the bin that obviously discard their dog bags on the grass. Perhaps if there was a bin nearer the Skipton side of the path one or two of them may be tempted to use them, or perhaps that is just wishful thinking.

Patricia Mason

Roughaw Close

Skipton

SIR - It is my duty to write offering mild rebuke to your otherwise estimable journal. I refer to the latest column by your angling correspondent, Mr JW Preston, in which he appears to offer tacit approval of the ungentlemanly practice of legering for trout by reporting, uncritically, of a trout captured by this unseemly method. Reputable anglers fish for brown trout with a fly.

I concede that for those lacking the angling skill to adequately fish with fly, long trotting with a worm is perhaps admissible. Angling is an art, and angling for brown trout arguably the highest form of this art.

The Craven Herald has a well deserved reputation for integrity. Is it too much to ask that your newspaper should promote the best in angling in your angling column, and refrain in the future from anything which would promote or encourage the aesthetically offensive practice of legering for salmo trutta?

Maurice Alderley-Park

Barbon,

Kirkby Lonsdale

SIR - Thank you Andrew Hitchon for your enjoyable feature article, “ Hay times – they are a changin’” August 21.

I’m sure it will have sent many readers reaching back into their haymaking memories, maybe tinged with the nostalgic glow of a rural idyll now long gone. Whole families and village communities, out in the fields till the summer evening dusk gives way to torches and headlamps, working in informal teams, raking, forking, heaving bales, to ‘get the hay in’ before the weather changes, a truly communal, cooperative effort.

However, Andrew rightly darkens the nostalgia by reminding us of the sheer physical slog of haymaking in pre-tractor days and the ever-present anxiety of depending on our unpredictable weather.

The article made me search out a photo in my family archive. Our late 1930s and war-time car, a Morris 8 ‘tourer’, complete with cowled headlights, is piled with hay from the garden, and small children, to be taken to the nearby farm outside Ulverston. My mother and a ‘land girl’ would have done the scything, all part of the war-time campaign ‘Grow for Victory’.

There are parts of Europe, of course, where old-style haymaking is still the norm.

For several years I have done a summer trek through the mountain range which straddles Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo in the Balkans. The mountains are spectacular, the people friendly, the flowers glorious, the home-produced food and ‘raki’ delicious, but an added pleasure is to see traditional haymaking in action.

Two years ago we watched a team of three men scything a valley meadow; they were ‘in echelon’, working parallel lines across the field, each man ahead of the other so that they didn’t cut each other’s leg off. They swung their scythes with smooth rhythm and economy of effort, laying the cut grass in immaculate straight lines.

Later, the lines of grass will be tossed by fork to dry into hay before being raked up and drawn by horse and sled to near the farmhouse. There it will be built up into what we would call a hay ‘pike’ round a vertical pole with short prongs of sawn off branches to help the pike stay firm.

There is still something intensely moving to see man and beast working in pre-technology harmony with nature in this age-old rhythm of the seasons. But would I like to be doing it, especially if my livelihood depended on it? Hmmm!

Richard Hargreaves

Hawkswick

PS On Friday, October 3, at 7.30pm in the Octagon Theatre in Grassington Town Hall, there is a fundraising event for Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue when I shall be giving a presentation on mountain trekking through the proposed Balkans Peace Park in Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo.

SIR - May I through your newspaper please ask the person or persons to stop dumping their nasty, horrid rubbish in my refuse bins that are awaiting collection.

I am not the only one this has happened to on William Street.

Lois Shore

William Street,

Earby

SIR - I’m writing to appeal to your readers to get involved in Blood Pressure UK’s Know Your Numbers! Week from September 15 to 21. A shocking eight million people in the UK are at risk of a stroke or heart attack because of their blood pressure.

We’re asking everyone, of all ages, to take a moment to visit one of Blood Pressure UK’s pressure stations during the week to have a blood pressure test and know their numbers. If left unchecked and not dealt with, high blood pressure can lead to a heart attack or a stroke.

Nine out of 10 people don’t know their blood pressure numbers.

It is the UK’s biggest silent killer, responsible for 60 per cent of strokes and 40 per cent of heart attacks.

High blood pressure is also a risk factor for kidney disease and dementia.

Eleven per cent of 16 to 24 year olds and 17 per cent of 25 to 34 year olds who were checked in last year’s campaign, had high blood pressure

Around a quarter of all younger men checked last year had a ‘high normal’ blood pressure reading, putting them at risk of developing high blood pressure.

You wouldn’t know you have high blood pressure unless you have it checked, which is why it’s called ‘the silent killer’, however the good news is that if detected with a simple, quick and painless test, high blood pressure can be successfully managed and returned to a healthy level.

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and share the #KnowYourNumbers and other content during the week to help spread the word. You can also text NUMBERS to 70003 to donate £3.

Visit bloodpressureuk.org/kyn to see where your nearest Pressure Station is located and to find out more information on Know Your Numbers! Week.

Katharine Jenner

Chief executive officer at Blood Pressure UK

Charterhouse Square,

London