HEALTH SERVICE: What was the sense of building a brand new hospital in Bishop Auckland and then doing away with an absolutely vital facility like intensive maternity care?

What happened to Andrea and Dean Harrison should have been unthinkable. How in a society that still purports to be civilised could anyone be treated like that? It was sheer, unmitigated barbarity.

It would not have happened under the old arrangements in Bishop. The old hospital, however antiquated it looked, had all the essential facilities and would have been equal to the situation.

That has now gone though, a victim to somebody's grandiose visions of ultra-modernity.

Do the people who make these kind of decisions live in the real world? - T Kelly, Crook.

WHAT is wrong with our new Bishop Auckland Hospital? I ask this question because I am continually hearing that different departments are being transferred from the smart new hospital to the dilapidated run-down Darlington Memorial.

The latest example is the maternity section and this cannot be right. The facilities at Bishop were excellent in the old building and, I assume, gave no cause for complaint.

Shouldn't a brand new hospital be capable of providing modern up-to-the minute equipment and treatment, rather than that offered in an old scruffy establishment?

The staff, doctors, nurses and ancillary personnel do a wonderful job in both hospitals but the lack of efficient organisation and planning from self-important mandarins can cause problems and even put patients' lives at risk.

Leave Bishop Auckland General Hospital alone and let it do the job for which it was built. - Mary Weir Lewis, Barnard Castle.

IT seems the emergency ambulance service needs a better organised system to monitor the situation when peoples' lives are at risk and who rely on the service when needed, especially when you see so much of the resources being wasted on other things by the NHS. - N Tate, Darlington.

MY father had an eight-hour major operation at the Newcastle Freeman Hospital critical care unit.

Everyone who works there deserves grateful thanks and praise - doctors, nurses, male and female and cleaners who work long hours - all dedicated.

I wish the Press could show the good work done in hospitals for a change. This unit is amazing to see. - Dorothy Williams, Darlington.

DARLINGTON VISIT

I HAVE had a visitor from Australia. She was very impressed with the litter-free town of Darlington.

I was proud, too, to show her our market square, our wynds and yards. Coffee houses, too, were praised.

I think some of the thanks should go to our CCTV team.

I am glad of being a resident of 57 years in Darlington. - Molly Elsworth, Darlington.

SAFETY AT SEA

MAY I remind the people who go to the coast, take out inflatables, get into difficulties and want to be rescued, that it costs £290,000 per day to run the lifeboat service.

The service is paid for by public subscription and Merchant Navy and other ships' gifts.

The volunteer crews, who are not paid, willingly risk their lives, sometimes to rescue thoughtless people from drowning.

Please think before you float face down if the lifeboats are not there. - M Johnson, Bedale.

FIRE SERVICE

THE Fire Brigades Union did have a hand in the firefighters' pay being low.

During the war, when the brigades were nationalised, many were Police Fire Brigades' manned by policemen.

So when the National Fire Service was de-nationalised, all fire brigades had what was known as police parity. They received the same pay as the police. There was never any need to worry about pay rises as they came automatically when the police got one.

The FBU decided to scrap police parity, claiming the firemen would get higher pay as they were working a 60-hour week, far longer than the police were.

Of course it never happened. The police pay went up and past the firemen's.

Another mistake was to scrap the free rent, free mortgage and accept a 15 shilling pay rise. How many firemen now would give up 75p in wages and have their mortgage paid? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

SPEED CAMERAS

E REYNOLDS (HAS, May 26) comments that many drivers break the speed limit and receive penalty points because they are unaware they are doing so.

This happens very often in 30mph zones when the drivers think they are in 40mph zones, due to the fact that there are no 30mph repeated speed limit signs, unlike in 40, 50, 60 and 70mph zones.

The Department of Transport in its publication, Speed Limits Signs - A Guide to Good Practice, confirms that it is not permitted for 30mph.

If the object of speed cameras is to increase road safety, then highway authorities must be allowed by law to erect repeater 30mph signs to keep drivers fully informed to speed limits. - P White, Sunderland.

EUROPE

I WATCHED the Eurovision Song Contest, not so much for the music but more for Terry Wogan's wit at this annual farce.

What we saw were countries giving top marks to their neighbours and nations they were friendly with, and not voting for the song.

Britain, being hated by the more envious states of Europe, will not win this competition again bar a miracle.

What we witnessed in this so-called song contest will be going on in the European Parliament with Britain being out-voted by Balkan and Baltic states grouping together.

British power in the European Parliament has already been weakened by many regions losing MEPs so that the new states can have some representation. - T Agnew, Darlington.

EXAMINATIONS

I AM an AS-level student at Richmond School and am due to sit exams this month and in June. I am not against the AS followed by A-level system in general because it allows for re-sits on one unit at a time.

However, the claim by the education department that students are now under less pressure because they sit fewer exams completely contradicts the reality. I have to sit all ten of my written papers on two consecutive days. I believe that, due to this, my grades will suffer based on the experience of a friend who was predicted A grades (as am I).

On the day of one subject they sat all three modules in the afternoon session and achieved the predicted A grade in the first two modules followed by a D in the third. This was simply due to tiredness, proved when they took a re-sit the following January and an A grade was achieved.

There are several people in my year who find themselves in a similar situation to myself. We would prefer to have one or two units a day and have the exams spread across the weeks set aside for examinations in all subjects. Instead we find ourselves completely stressed out just so the Government can project an image of students who are happier due to their efforts in reducing the number of exams.

I hope this situation can be remedied to ensure other students don't suffer in the same way as me and my friends. - Kelda Roe, Richmond.