Letters To Editor: Let's all help our hospital staff

Let's all help our hospital staff
I watched 20/20 on Thursday covering the problems emergency department staff experience with intoxicated people. Terrible to think that it can take eight people to immobilise someone to be able to treat them. So when people say that valuable resources are wasted, they are not exaggerating.
Think how many more people they would be able to treat and how much faster they could do it, if all patients were sober. Also it is sobering to consider the young age of such patients and the enduring damage to developing brains. In 2008, Hawke's Bay DHB undertook a study of injury presentations to ED that were alcohol related.
In May, the percentage was 18 per cent and, in December, 25 per cent. On weekends, the percentage is higher. Being on the front line dealing with such unnecessarily difficult people must be hugely frustrating.
We can congratulate the doctors and nurses for their fortitude, or we can help them by reducing availability, stopping advertising and sponsorship, having a minimum price, ending legal drunk driving, and reconsidering the legal drinking age.
These are the interventions proposed by the World Health Organisation and known to be effective.
Fran Lowe,Alcohol Action
Hawkes Bay Merging councils
Why all this fuss about merging councils at the local level, when we already have a Hawke's Bay Regional Council? If regional councils can't achieve what advocates of amalgamation want under current legislation, why not seek an amendment to the Resource Management Act to give them the relevant powers?
Such a proposal would then go through the scrutiny of parliamentary select committees and the House of Representatives, and the outcome would be applicable nationwideGeoffrey WhiteheadNapierBe safe be seenYes! Kerry (letters, July 12), I agree.
Being a cyclist myself and not going too slow, I make sure I have two tail-lights and one front light in the dark, one flashing and one continuous.
The tail-lights on the market are not bright (safe) enough.
Come on fellow cyclists. Do the right thing.
Have lights when it is dark, don't ride on the footpath and look where you are going (crossing).
We want our space and safety (from motorists) so does the motorist want it safe for them and us. Ride safe.
Peter van der Stam, Napier
Open the doors
What a truly charitable idea opening Marineland in support of Christchurch. The timing couldn't be more perfect, especially with all of New Zealand being encouraged to get out there and raise funds in support of Christchurch.
Barbara, Bill, our elected council you are all quite happy to remind us that a portion of our rates is paying for the facility to be maintained. Yet you are not happy to let it make money. You won't allow us in to get the benefit of our rates, now you won't be charitable on our behalf.
Why not open the doors during the school holidays so that we, the people of Napier, can give to others in need.
Surely our council has not forgotten that we, the people of Napier, could so easily be at the receiving end as we were back in 1931.
This stubbornness and heavy handedness is your legacy for tomorrow.
Not looking so good is it?
Germaine Meeuws and Trevor Humphreys, Napier