Reacting to peril with skill and a sense of community

Accordingly, may I simply endorse the wholehearted praise for those who responded so magnificently to what might well have been a major tragedy with significant loss of life. It matters not whether those who responded were highly skilled and trained, like the emergency services, volunteers like the Honorary Police and similar organisations, or simply public spirited ordinary householders who offered what they could to those rendered temporarily homeless.

I would also like to add another group of people whose professionalism is all too often ignored at times such as last week – when they play a vital role in the dissemination on an Island wide basis of swift and accurate appraisals of the situation and that is the media.

In stark contrast to the last such incident 30 years ago, when communication between journalists and their respective offices was of an age which relied more on the Fort Regent signal station and semaphore flags than present day mobile phones and hand held computers, today’s media was able to keep the Island informed in the most graphic and informative of ways.

That too amounts to service to the community.

It was nice to read the excellent comments from Robin Barthorp about his treatment while a patient at the General Hospital, although his experiences won’t be a surprise to most Island residents or indeed the many visitors who comment favourably about the place.

The last time I referred to letters in praise of the hospital I got it in the neck from someone who said that my comments were hypocritical because I am sometimes critical of Health and Social Services. To put it in terms most people will understand, I criticise pinstripes who walk about with clipboards checking the toilets all have toilet paper. I do not criticise those who hold my hand while I’m using a bed pan after painful surgery. Got it?

Mr Barthorp also referred to less than ideal treatment he received while a patient in an Oxford hospital and said that his letter of complaint had not even been acknowledged. The following may be of help to him in this respect.

Many years ago a friend had a son who got his first job after leaving school at 16 and a few months later, without reference to the parents, a bank issued the lad with a cheque book and gave him an overdraft facility equal to a couple of months wages.

Cutting a long story short, the kid got into bad company, spent more than he earned and the cheques started to bounce. The first my mate knew of it was when the boss of their corner shop mentioned that he had half a dozen cheques written by the lad and didn’t really know how to put it but wanted his money.

My mate paid him and then rang the bank, told them what had happened, asked for details of the overdraft and other bounced cheques so that he could settle his son’s debts and suggested that they close the account before further debts were incurred.

Amazingly, and despite the child being only 16, the bank refused to give the father any information at all and that refusal was repeated all the way to the top person he spoke to. He then wrote formally to the bank pointing out that neither he nor his wife had consented to the cheque and overdraft facility, that neither had signed as guarantor and, as the age of majority was (then) 20 in Jersey, if he failed to clear his son’s overdraft then the bank would lose the money.

Just like Mr Barthorp’s experience, there wasn’t even an acknowledgement and so he went to the bank and asked to see the latest annual report and accounts, without saying why. From that he got the name of the chairman, a peer of the realm, as it happened, went straight along to the Public Library, looked up Who’s Who and, perhaps not surprisingly, got the peer’s home address.

He wrote to him there outlining his difficulty and, as he was later told by a senior manager of that particular bank, all hell broke loose with letters of apology – including a handwritten one from the chairman – flying in from all directions.

So, it pays to go to the top which is why I would suggest to Mr Barthorp in relation to his complaint about the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford that he contacts the Secretary of State for Health, one Andrew Lansley. His email address is lansleya@parliament.uk or by post at 153 St Neots Road, Handwick, Cambridge CB23 7QJ and in both instances include his full postal address for a response, if he’s so lucky.

And finally,

I read all the whining and whingeing about the public money sponsorship of the Jersey Rugby Club – most of it coming from purported supporters of or participants in other sports – with jaw dropping incredulity. Don’t these people know how little advertising space or time £75,000 actually buys. Here is an opportunity to parade J-E-R-S-E-Y on Sky TV, in provincial and possibly national newspapers and up and down the length and breadth of England and in a sport which doesn’t carry soccer’s hooligan supporter baggage, and all we get are moans.

Years ago I met Gibraltar’s tourism supremo – a delightful man called Pepe Vaughan – at a conference. Together we watched the Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres in which the Gibraltarian runner raced off as if he was in a much shorter race. He was streets ahead for about half the race but, just as I’d repeatedly forecast, he ran himself into the ground and didn’t finish.

‘Look at the free global publicity,’ said a jubilant Pepe.