Letter: Viewpoints - Wasting NHS cash... all for a language!

Byline: Gareth Day

I SEE from Monday's Echo that the Cardiff &Vale NHS Trust is to appoint a full-time Welsh-language officer who I assume will receive a very healthy salary along with the tens of thousands of pounds they will be spending and thousands of man hours wasted implementing its Welsh awareness programme.

I am on the NHS waiting list for back surgery - estimated waiting time from my GP nine months. I have already had to pay to have a private MRI scan because the estimated wait was quoted as up to 12 months, then I had to pay to go private to see a consultant for a diagnosis and referral for surgery because again the wait to see a consultant was estimated at six to nine months.

Now my money has run out because I can no longer work for a living to pay for a private operation at an estimated pounds 10,000-pounds 15,000.

Now I sit at home, claiming state benefits waiting for surgery. Without the funds to go private thus far I would have waited almost a year already and I still have a long and painful wait to have an operation.

I am personally offended that the NHS trust spends its budget promoting the Welsh language within its hospitals while patients suffer.

Perhaps the money could be better spent on doctors, nurses, cleaners or medical equipment.

Our health service, I can say from my own bitter experience, is in crisis. Can anyone argue how promoting the Welsh language among hospital staff is of more importance than actually getting patients treated on time?

Gareth Day, Llandough, Penarth