OUR Readers' letters online forum has been a busy place over the past few days, with a healthy exchange of views on a variety of subjects.

David Withey wrote: "Your headline 'Hospital at full stretch' reminds me of the Care Quality Commission report rating the Worcester hospital as ‘Inadequate’, after their visit in December 2019.

"Your ‘comment’ column at that time highlighted the main problem – the hospital is just too small. This prompted my suggestion – why not convert County Hall into part of the hospital?"

mikeworcs was not convinced by the suggestion: "Not sure it could be 'easily and cost-effectively' converted.

"For a start, it's lacking all of the infrastructure necessary to transport oxygen and other medical gases around the building. You can't just stick a few pipes to the walls. Internal doorways and lifts would need expanding to cope with beds – you can't just make a lift shaft in the middle of a building, bigger.

"The site itself would make a good expansion for the hospital, that's for sure, though."

Janet Wiggins made the pithy point: "Where are they going to get the staff from?"

Redhillman took the opportunity to question the need for the county council to be housed in such a large building: "In today's modern working era where many people now work from various locations as truly viable alternatives to an office it does beggar belief that Worcestershire County Council still continues to see fit to have such a large building which is County Hall.

"So many other businesses are scaling back their premises and reducing the considerable running costs and overheads of having staff in a place of work by allowing their staff to work from home for example and yet businesses continue to function and function well.

"County Hall is now a dinosaur in a modern era which costs tax payers a substantial amount to keep running."

The following day, Julie Reynolds' letter about "doom-laden messages delivered in depressing monotone by the suited and booted doom-mongers at their suitably doom-labelled podiums" .

Criscross did not agree: "No one can talk us out of this dire situation. The sun has not got his hat on, and people are losing their jobs. Only through reducing the number of people being infected will we have our regular lives restored. The self-employed, people in public-facing roles and people delivering healthcare and vaccinations are very stressed. No amount of 'jolly hockey sticks' talk will help them. A bit of consideration and appreciation of their experience would go a long way! We can all go hip hooray when it is in the past, but that time is some way off!"

mandmjohnson posted: "I am 75 and I don't care what they call vaccination centres as long as we all get called to one.

"As for 'doom laden' experts it's the only language some people understand. Just do what you have to do whether you laugh or cry!"

Moltaire posted: "What's probably wearing people down are the ones out there who continue to fail to acknowledge how serious coronavirus and deliberately choose to ignore all the guidance and rules.

"And because of these ignorant folk, vaccine or not, it will take many many months for the UK to return to normality which will further wear down and affect people.

"In fact we can already write off 2021 thanks in part to these people who dismiss the virus and the rules and who believe they have a right to do so too."

In a more optimistic tone, Tythingrun said: "I think the point Julie is trying to make is that while the doom-laden messages may serve the agenda of some, they serve no useful purpose for those of us without political motive or need to make people read our papers or watch our news programmes.

"I think this is a generational thing in that many of the post war boomer generation remember most people 'being in the same boat ' when it came to their average 'lot'.

"The average male life expectancy today is around 81, whereas at the start of the 1950s it was 65.

"Generally, people had less. Now, for the X and Y generations it is the norm to demand more.

"At the very least we have an NHS that is able to function – maybe not at the level we'd like but still working.

"We've actually managed to take people off the streets in every major city in the UK during this crisis.

"We have eradicated many of the the diseases that decimated children's health in the 50s and 60s.

"We also have three vaccines being rolled out to counter this current threat to society.

"I won't get my vaccine straight away but as it is being given based on greatest need I am happy to wait my turn."

On Facebook, Andy Murphy took a more general view, pointing the finger at rolling news coverage: "I think one of main reasons news coverage is so bad is when we used to watch it twice a day on terrestrial TV, all they did was report the news.

"The 24-hour-a-day news coverage now means there isn't enough news so these programmes are filled out with 'gotcha' interviews and endless 'Experts' being wheeled out. When they run out of these they present their own reporters as experts.

"News has ceased to exist without it being presented with a narrative. I don't need some correspondent or newspaper to tell me how to think and how to vote."