Jason Ablewhite Congratulations to Jason Ablewhite, our new police and crime commissioner. While I’m not saying if I voted for him or not, it’s good to see that there are enough people around who voted him in, thus ignoring previous calls to have him suspended from his candidature because of one word he used in informal chat on Facebook.

(Although anyone who believes that anything we put on the Internet is always going to remain private is a little naïve don’t you think?)

Back to the point: It’s time we called a halt to the nonsense happening these days when people try to disgrace others because of single words they use in informal situations.

What matters most is the sentiment behind the words, not the word(s) themselves. So often we see high-flying business tycoons milk well-known and well-loved enterprises of their staff pensions without a single thought to those who are affected.

When questioned, rather than hold their hands up and pay the money back, they adopt the rather dubious method: ‘attack is the best form of defence’ and start attacking those who are doing the questioning. It’s time to call a halt to such skulduggery. You need to be psychic

You need to be psychic if you want to be insured for travel just after a minor accident. A local was involved in a car crash and had a suspected fractured rib.

Being in shock straight after the accident, she didn’t think to ask the doctor to confirm in writing what the x-ray revealed. She tried to inform the insurance company before going on holiday a few days later. No chance. A doctor’s letter was required and this takes two weeks to write. So, if you want to be insured a few days after being involved in a collision, you need to get the doctor to write the letter at least two weeks before you actually have the accident. Things don’t change, do they?

Small is beautiful

Addenbrooke’s must be one of the largest hospitals ever and most of us really appreciate the good job they do in the medical field.

However, let us hope they will call a halt to getting even larger and swallowing up our other good, smaller hospitals. Surely there must be a limit? Whether they like it or not, small is beautiful; big is nothing but a muddled conglomeration. My evidence? Many years ago, when my husband was being treated there, we arrived to find he’d either died or had been moved – the bed was empty and the mattress rolled up.

You’ll be pleased to know that we eventually found him in another ward. I was surprised to learn that nothing has changed: they ‘lost’ another patient recently. A local sent a card to someone who was seriously ill. The hospital obviously couldn’t find him for that same card had numerous suggestions drawn all over the unopened envelop as to where the patient might be and they eventually gave up and the card was returned to the sender.

If they can’t even find their patients, how on earth do they expect to be able to treat them properly? Are they sure they want to make this hospital or any other one larger?

Mercury

No, I’m not talking about the smallest planet in the solar system, or the winged messenger but the lethal substance used in ancient clocks, barometers or thermometers.

The recent scare in Downham Road in Ely, when the substance leaked from an old clock, is a reminder that we should steer clear of the stuff. Apparently, the problem is that the liquid can slowly vaporise at room temperature over days or weeks, creating invisible mercury atoms in the air that you could inhale. It could then get into the blood stream and end up in your brain. It’s not called nerve poison for nothing. It reminds me of when a couple of toddlers were found to be feeding each other poisonous berries from the garden.

Their worried parent rushed them to hospital where they were kept overnight. The children were absolutely fine and probably hadn’t ingested the berries they had been playing with – all they did, the parent was told by a rather harassed staff member, was entertain the staff with their lively antics all night including breaking a thermometer.

Let’s hope the mercury in that didn’t have any disastrous effects and it’s times like these that we should give a bow to the nurses who have to deal with such events.