LAST Saturday morning, as an 80 plus year old, I was blessed to be given my second Pfizer vaccination at the Gateway House centre in Skipton.

I marvelled at the whole experience. A smiling multitude of volunteer guides and helpers eased me through to the swift efficiency of the equally welcoming NHS staff for a painless prick in my left arm and then waved me off afterwards. Thank you and well done our local NHS teams and all the local volunteers.

Thank goodness the experience was not in the hands of our national government. That had spurned all local public health expertise and squandered 37 billion pounds on contracts to private sector, profit-making companies for a supposedly “world-beating” Test and Trace scheme which left large numbers of probably infected people untraced. £37,000,000,000!

No wonder Mr Sunak could not afford more than a one per cent top-up for NHS staff.

But thanks again to all involved in our local NHS vaccination programme. Excellent!

Richard Hargreaves

Hawkswick