Letters on Wisbech GP surgery, March theft, shop pay, Covid testing and buying kittens

They may as well close down hopeless GP surgeries

Trying to talk to a doctor nowadays is virtually impossible. Even a simple thing such as trying to get advice about my medication is hopeless.

I asked my pharmacist about this but was told to ring the Clarkson Surgery in Wisbech from 8.25am and to keep ringing until I spoke to someone.

I did this, only to be kept on the phone for 15 minutes listening to recorded messages and be palmed off to other numbers, then being told to hold, while listening to music.

We paid into the NHS all our working lives, only to be treated like this.

I had a blood test on February 7 and, to this day, I still have not been told the results.

My old doctor used to phone me about a week after having a blood test to tellme the results.

Now they can’t even do this.Hopeless.

Many other people are also fed up with the way we are being treated. Many of us do not have computers and cannot book online.

To save the NHS a lot of money they may as well get rid of all doctors’ surgeries I doubt the Clarkson surgery even know I have been treated three times at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn in the last three months.

Bryan Maddox

Wisbech

Why has there been no testing in Wisbech?

I would like to know why there is no Covid-19 testing in Wisbech.

Due to ill health and many hospital appointments I have had tosepdn £300 on going to King’s Lynn by taxi to have a Covid test over the last two years.

Admittedly, I have managed to get a small amount back.

There must be others like me.

West Walton resident

Name provided

It’s time Asda paid its staff better

The GMB union has begun a widespread campaign across various regions to demand that Asda begin paying its staff fairly.

On April 8, shop stewards were in stores collecting signatures demanding that Asda bring forward a proposed 2023 pay rise of £10.06 an hour to 2022.

In March 2022, staff pay rose to £9.66, well below the average for supermarket staff.

While engaging in the day of action, GMB surveyed over 2,000 members across the country and unearthed some shocking statistics.

Eight per cent of those surveyed admitted to having to use a food bank, 12% used payday lenders, while 70% said their low pay had a negative effect on their mental health.

Only four per cent say they can afford the energy price hike and the National Insurance price hike.

At the same time, Sainsbury’s has announced a five per cent pay increase for its shopfloor staff up to a base pay of £10 an hour, while Grocery Home workers are to receive a pay rise to £11.50 per hour.

On top of these, 12 Asda Home Shop departments had a 90p discretionary pay rise slashed from their wages.

This pay rise was ‘awarded’ before Christmas in order to retain driving staff; Asda has a roughly 80% turnover of home shopping staff due to low wages, poor management, and ridiculous targets.

Expected pick rates are up to 240 items an hour (roughly 15 seconds per item), and up to seven deliveries an hour are scheduled in some instances.

Asda reported a 75% rise in demand for home delivery during 2021 and made £486million in profit in 2021.

Clearly Asda is not strapped for cash. It is time Asda coughs up what it owes its staff.

The GMB should build on its consultation and demands by balloting for strike action

to demand a real living wage.

John Smithee

Wisbech

I hope police do their job and catch this scum

To the absolute piece of scum that stole the purse off an elderly lady in High Street, March, March 25.

Whoever you are and whatever financial crisis/addiction you are going through, there is never any excuse to pick on the elderly and vulnerable.

You are a sick individual that deserves naming and shaming on every platform available once you are apprehended, if you are.

There area lot of cameras taking footage in and around High Street, so one of them may have captured the culprit, before/after he/she stole the 80-plus- year-old’s purse, which contained £90 in cash, along with her bank card and PIN number, which allowed them to hit her to the tune of another £500.

If the police do their due diligence, then they must be able to give the public some clues on how to identify this disgusting criminal.

It’s time to earn your money, solve a real crime and restore some of our faith in our police force.

To those that raised money for the victim through Facebook, I commend you, To the bank of the elderly lady, I sincerely hope you gave her a sizeable ‘goodwill gesture’ because, surely, it is your care of duty to make sure all elderly people are well versed into how to avoid such a devastating crime?

For instance, have there been discussions with older people, who may be hard of memory, to keep their PIN numbers close to them, but not in their purse/wallet?

The vulnerable will become more so in the future with banks closing at an exponential rate, leaving people relying on ATMs, but at the mercy of the stranger lurking behind them, or around the corner.

Ashley Smith

March

The ‘Big Kitten Con’

With kitten season nearly here, Cats Protection is releasing a documentary highlighting the potentially tragic risks of buying underage kittens online from unscrupulous sellers who put profit before welfare.

The Big Kitten Con, narrated by Caroline Quentin, features traumatic accounts of kittens being sold at less than the legal age for commercial sale, which is eight-weeks, and sadly dying from debilitating illnesses.

Last year, 340,000 of the 500,000 cats that were purchased in the UK were found online on sites like Facebook, Gumtree, Pets 4 Homes and Preloved.

Though many sellers are responsible people, there are unscrupulous individuals who will exploit the anonymity of the internet to sell kittens that have been taken from their mums too young, denying them vital nutrients and social development, while passing them off as healthy, eight-week-old kittens.

As well as giving advice, we are encouraging the public to sign a petition calling on the Government to regulate cat breeding. It has just been introduced in Scotland and we would like to see England, Wales and Northern Ireland follow suit.

We want anyone who breeds two or more litters of kittens in a year to be licensed, which would make them subject to regular inspections.

To watch Cats Protection’s The Big Kitten Con video and to sign Cats Protection’s petition, please visit www.cats.org.uk/kitten-con

Madison Rogers

Cats Protection