Hotel quarantine is another example of too little too late – it’s all up to immigration officials now

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What this government is good at is either doing nothing or doing it too late.

What hope have immigration staff got to run a smooth isolation system for incoming travellers?

The government is incapable of proactive thought or action, so those who are charged with looking after us ought to take control of actions designed to safeguard the British people.

Yet again, our government failed to properly implement a vital safety measure which, in my view, ought to have been in operation since the beginning of the pandemic in Britain. Coupled with a firmly policed lockdown, and now vaccines, we would be whipping the arse off this persistent little disease if we had had adequate management.

Just look at what the NHS has achieved with Covid-19 immunisations. I, and 14 million others, have used a service which really is a beacon light for other countries to follow. The service was organised by NHS professional practitioners who understand the intricacies of their task.

Also, immigration managers ought to stop whining, instead, these highly paid managers and senior staff must take control of the situation to develop another isolation control system which adequately does the job to safeguard Britain.

Come on, immigration people, be proactive, get on and develop a control system of which to be proud. Don’t wait for Boris Johnson to “smell the coffee”. He will be too late and your time is short. So get started now, we are depending on you to succeed.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Health insurance

In her impassioned letter on Saturday regarding the American health insurance system, Karen Abbott misses the point. Mary Dejevsky was clear in her piece that the American system was NOT the one to follow. The northern European models quoted by Dejevsky are indeed quite different from both the US system and ours. People can see the direct connection between their contributions and the outcome and the systems clearly work.

However, in support of Ms Abbott, I recall some years ago our daughter being called in to look at a project within a major US oil company in California. She concluded that it was indeed in danger of failure but that those involved were unable to admit it and ask for help. They were afraid that if they did, they would be sacked and lose their health cover. Six months later it did fail, they were, and they did.

Colin Wright

Orpington

NHS funding

As a retired hospital worker, I stood up and cheered when I’d read Mary Dejevsky’s piece about the funding of the NHS.

In the last year, the workforce have, quite rightly, been given plaudits for their sterling, selfless service. But there are, even at the best of times, simply not enough of them. Successive governments, obsessed with “efficiency” (which means doing as much as possible on a shoestring) have ensured that the service is underfunded, and therefore understaffed. 

Yet again we Brits are resting on the laurels of past glories, when we had an empire, ruled the waves, won world wars and instituted “free” health care for all. We are having to face up to changing times in many respects, and the funding of the NHS is just one of them.

Mary Dejevsky points out that we are alarmed by the failings of the US system of health insurance, but that there are others which are far better. Nothing is free. It makes sense that the wealthy should pay more for healthcare and others, though they receive the same care, pay little or nothing. During this pandemic, our present leaders have repeatedly demonstrated their inability or unwillingness to look around and learn from other countries. It’s high time that their blinkers were removed, but I greatly fear that they are too firmly attached, as are those of many of the rest of us.

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

Freezing lion cub

As a retired chief inspector of the Zimbabwean Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ZNSPCA), I was appalled to read in your newspaper that a lion cub froze to death at a park at the Port Lympne Reserve in Kent.

While lions are listed as “vulnerable” by Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), should they become “endangered” in the future, there are many, very experienced people in the field of lion conservation in Africa who will become involved.

I suggest in future that the staff at this reserve in Kent leave the breeding of lion cubs to the experts. The comment, that staff said they believed that the cub succumbed to the cold “very quickly”, makes this tragedy even less acceptable.

Meryl Harrison

Porlock

Seasonal lockdowns

It is indeed welcome news that Matt Hancock believes that “Covid will be like flu by the end of 2021”. But the question has to be asked – how will the government react when the NHS is swamped next midwinter, as it has been every year for a decade? I fear that unless the issue of capacity in hospitals is addressed with an urgency hitherto unseen, the government will be tempted to revert to lockdowns as a cure-all for the seasonal overwhelming pressure that surely awaits an unimproved health service.

Colin Burke

Cumbria