Now is the time for a new national bank holiday to celebrate the NHS

Send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Now is the time to persuade the government to institute a new national bank holiday, to celebrate the anniversary of the launch of our national health service. The NHS came into being on the 5 July 1948, after a great deal of thought, planning and organisation.

I was 10 years old and can remember the excitement of both my doctor parents, part of that planning, relieved that their patients no longer had to worry about paying medical fees in addition to the distress of being ill. I don’t know where the myth came from that doctors were antagonistic to the NHS – what I personally recall is their satisfaction that the burden of anxiety about how treatment could be paid for was lifted. I still see that burden when visiting family in the US, where the terror of ill-health lies heavy.

A bank holiday in early July, at the end of the academic year and before the summer holidays, will act as a lasting tribute to our present-day NHS and its tireless staff, at a time when we are especially aware of the skill, courage and fortitude they are showing. It will also act as permanent recognition of the importance and value of the NHS to the people of this country.

Dr Jennifer Johns
London

Coronavirus testing – what’s the fuss?

While I can follow the logic for testing individuals extensively to find out if they had been previously infected by the virus and had recovered, I cannot see what all the fuss about the lack of testing of NHS frontline staff is about.

If someone has recovered from the infection, then it is important to know that they now have some or complete immunity to the virus, and can safely return to frontline services.

However, if say a 100,000 individuals were tested to find out if they were infected, those in the clear today could five days later have been infected by contact with others in their household or individuals they may have worked with.

So it seems to me, that testing for the presence of the virus has to not only be large scale, but also involve continuous retesting. I would really like an explanation of the real benefits of testing for the presence of the virus, because it seems to be used as a political football to pass blame somewhere else for any increase in infection rates.

Derek Misell
Cardiff, Wales

War spirit comparison

We are invoking the spirit of 1940, but does the present deployment of our men and women really bear comparison with mobilisation for total war?

There is much agitation over a shortage of tests which can leave ICU specialists (our equivalent of fighter pilots) and other medical staff unavailable for duty if a family member develops Covid-like symptoms. As we approach the peak of the crisis could not such key personnel pre-emptively isolate from their families rather than risk having to isolate with them? There are abundant hotel rooms lying empty which would facilitate this.

There are other essential roles (distribution of food, childcare, domiciliary care and harvesting of crops) to which new workers could more quickly adapt. Yet many furloughed employees have been taken onto the public payroll to do nothing, with the express intention of their not seeking alternative employment. Shouldn’t they be on call to join or replace those in essential work?

There are two ways in which some replacement of frontline workers may be desirable. One is to use workers whose family circumstances allow them the highest degree of isolation, minimising the risk of them becoming infected and thus liable to infect those they work with. The other reason is to minimise the risk of a worker who does become infected then being added to the number of casualties needing hospitalisation at this critical time and perhaps even dying.

We know that vulnerability to becoming critically ill varies greatly from person to person and we have a distressingly large and growing body of data telling us how particular characteristics influence the chances of needing a ventilator and of dying. This could be combined with personal medical records to generate individual risk scores.

One and a half million people have been ordered into the highest level of isolation, but this is a fraction of those with one or more of the known risk factors. A more nuanced risk scoring would suggest who to pull out of the frontline and who to draft in replacing them.

John Riseley
Harrogate

Labour’s welcome return to the centre left

People on the centre left of British politics will welcome the election of Sir Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party. It is hoped he will work with all like-minded people who share his political stance.

For too long Labour has been divided between those who wish for a high degree of nationalisation and those who feel happier with the idea of a mixed economy. It is to be hoped Sir Keir will clearly side with the latter approach. This of course needs to go along with a clear concern for constitutional reform and environmental commitment.

Coronavirus apart, there is a real need to revive the idea of a progressive alliance in British politics.

The Rev Andrew McLuskey
Ashford

Sane again?

I am pleased to congratulate Sir Keir Starmer on being elected as leader of the Labour Party. I wonder, shall we look back on this moment in years to come as the start of our country regaining some semblance of sanity? Just possibly.

Robert Boston
Kingshill

An abysmal response

I think the government’s handling of the crisis has been mediocre to abysmal. From the beginning I have been horrified by the lack of testing, which could have formed the very basis of a strategy to protect the non-infected and vulnerable, keep the wheels of the economy turning, albeit more slowly, and be a reliable source of information to reduce the debilitating worry and fear the virus has caused.

After this is over, two pictures will sum up the episode – one of the huge heaving crowds at the Cheltenham Festival, deemed by the scientists and government as “safe” as it was in the “open air”, and a few weeks later, the police’s overhead shot of a couple completely alone in the open air of the Derbyshire countryside, their actions being branded as foolish and dangerous.

Penny Little
Great Haseley