Spectator letters: A defence of nursing assistants, a mystery shotgun, and a response to Melanie Phillips

Poor treatment

Sir: Jane Kelly’s article (‘No tea or sympathy’, 2 August) on the lack of empathy and emotional support shown to patients is humbling. It is also worth noting that showing patients a lack of compassion has wider consequences. We know for instance that around 13,000 cancer patients feel like dropping out of treatment each year because of how they are treated by staff. In other words, it could risk their lives.

It is unfair to say, however, that the nurses who used to be ‘angels’ have been replaced by the ‘mechanistic bureaucrats’ of assistants. Healthcare assistants often have the toughest time of all healthcare professionals, not only because of their busy workloads, which Ms Kelly highlights, but also because they often receive little training and feel undervalued and are without a voice. If we want to see genuine, widespread change, we need to see the government fully committing to creating a compassionate NHS.