HEAR ALL SIDES.

(From The Northern Echo)

HOSPITAL SERVICES ON the face of it, the message of Barry Nelson's article about MRSA infections in hospitals (Echo, Aug 6) was reassuring.

But read carefully, the article was anything but reassuring. For a start, the statement that at least half of hospital staff have "traces of bowel organism on their hands" is absolutely shocking in its implications.

There are three steps that need taking urgently to end the current shambles: (1) an end to the fiasco of contracted out cleaning; (2) the ejection of senior management from their ivory towers, and would it be asking too much to bring back matrons? (3) An end to degree courses for nurses and their training on the job instead (at present you've got nurses fresh from college who know all about DNA etc but don't know how to make a bed).

A tall order, maybe, but its alternative is the continuance of the present appalling statistic of 5,000 deaths per annum from hospital acquired infections. - T Kelly, Crook.

COASTGUARDS WHILE reading my morning papers I felt very annoyed at the way our local coastguard teams were criticised after rescuing a model plane off the cliff.

These men and women are a credit to our shoreline who receive little recognition for their actions.