Birth of Games

It’s good, of course, that medical equipment left over from Scotland’s Commonwealth Games can be used elsewhere, and I see great merit in sending all of this to Africa to help women with problems in childbirth (your online report, 26 October).

What puzzles me is that £10,000 worth of this equipment was purchased in the first place to help with the latter stages of childbirth at a sporting event and a sporting venue in Glasgow.

How many of the competitors and their training and coaching staff were actually at risk of having childbirth problems at an event which lasted just short of two weeks?

How many of them could easily have been treated within the confines of NHS Glasgow had they had such problems; and who paid for this equipment?

When such events as the Commonwealth Games do come to Scotland we have a rare chance to show ourselves as a nation in control of our resources.

Remember, we hosted and were doing business with 71 other nations all over the world for that golden window in the summer.

We do need to know who overspent £10,000 on medical equipment now being given away, no matter how good the cause.

W KENNETH GUNN

Halliday’s Park

Selkirk