THE 12-hour wait in accident and emergency experienced by Jane Best is a sign of what a state the National Health Service is in.

Unfortunately spending lengthy periods of time in such departments is not unusual when there is need for more staff and more beds.

Sympathy should go out to the staff who work in A&E at Wycombe Hospital who often bear the brunt of patients kept waiting for treatment.

They are working under harsh conditions running on a limited number of staff.

More money than ever is being ploughed into the service, so why do we hear of breast screening units facing possible closure, A&E departments having to close because of a shortage of beds or staff, or both, and a young heart attack victim being found dead on a cubicle floor after waiting for three hours to be seen by a doctor.

Where is all the money going?

All the parties at this election will no doubt promise to plough ever greater funds into the service. Meanwhile staff in the wards have to do the best they can.

The British used to be proud of the service when it started in the 1940s. But now it is just a disappointment to many people.

Many have good experiences of the service but there is also a high percentage who have lost their faith in the service.

We should be holding the Government and the NHS big wigs to account and supporting the people working "on the shop floor".

School transport must do better

EVERY parent who has a child using school transport should be feeling worried following a police investigation which found that many vehicles were unroadworthy.

Parents put a lot of trust in the companies taking their children to school when they wave goodbye in the morning.

Nobody would expect anything less but the highest standards in the vehicles used. But a police spot check showed that's not always the case.

Some of the vehicles they looked at had so many defects they had to be taken off the road immediately.

That's not very re-assuring news to anyone who has kids using school transport.

It's an absolute disgrace that some companies are not doing their job properly and are sending out vehicles which should not be in use.

The police need to take tough action against those companies who seem unconcerned with pupils' safety.

Confidence needs to be restored in the school transport system or nobody will want to use it.

People's forum

POLITICIANS are often criticised for not listening to the views of ordinary people. That's why the Free Press is holding its second Election Forum to give Wycombe voters the chance to put their questions to the candidates.

It should be an informative and entertaining evening.

If you are still undecided on who to vote for on June 7, this is the perfect opportunity to find out what the candidates really think.