YET again this week the Reverend Peter Mullen was off on his hobby-horse about the NHS (Echo, Feb 24).

On the strength of discussions with two doctors he complains about a “plethora of bureaucrats of byzantine proportions”.

To a great extent this is a result of the Government's “top down reorganisation” which has seen the NHS has been invaded by management consultants, purchasing agencies etc. all putting public NHS funds into private pockets.

I recall reading that the amount of public NHS money going into private pockets has doubled under this government.

In spite of Peter’s never ending complaints, a recent study by the Commonwealth Institute of Washington, taking in data from patients, doctors and the World Health Organisation in many countries, concluded that our NHS scored top marks for “quality, access and efficiency”.

Perhaps Peter would prefer the American system of insurance-based care which costs two and a half times as much per person, involves a bureaucracy of mind blowing proportions, and leaves 25 per cent of the population uninsured relying on charity.

Eric Gendle, Middlesbrough.

REVEREND Peter Mullen seems to want the poor to be dependent upon charities again for their medical needs.

No doubt he wants the return of the parish boards from the Victorian era to decide on our fate.

The number of beds available is not the fault of the NHS but of political decisions starting with Margaret Thatcher's government which closed all the mental hospitals and decided patients should be in and out in one day. My own experience of that is that an injection in my spine to give me long lasting relief , and which was supposed to be given in the morning followed by a few hours lying down to let it run up the spine,was given 20 minutes before the ward shut.

I was forced to walk to a friend's car and by the time I got home it had run out leaving me in worse pain than before.

The delay I was told was due to an emergency.

Tom Cooper, Durham.