THE NHS: I CAN reassure P Cutmore (HAS, Mar 7) that co-operation is still very much to the fore between Darlington Memorial and Bishop Auckland hospitals. Most recently this has been extended to include the University Hospital in Durham. For example, consultants based in Darlington hold out-patient clinics at Bishop Auckland in Ophthalmology and ENT, and operate in Darlington.

By the way, they also do the same for the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton. The Arthroplasty Unit at Bishop Auckland for hip and knee surgery is staffed by consultants who visit from Durham and Darlington. Anaesthetists work between the three hospitals, as do other groups of surgeons and physicians. Nursing, therapy and other staff also provide their expertise to patients in their local hospitals, avoiding wherever possible the requirement for patients to travel.

We know that our staff can, and do, travel and make life much easier for patients with travel and transport difficulties. These arrangements will continue as long as we are able to deliver services safely and to nationally accepted clinical standards.

In-patient haematology, however, has to be centralised between Bishop Auckland and Darlington. The clinical staff themselves understand and accept this. The reasons for this move are entirely clinical. The debate and contention is over the location of the in-patient unit. However, 93 per cent of haematology work is carried out on a day case or out-patient basis and this will remain in the local hospital, no matter where the inpatient unit is located. - John Saxby, Chief Executive, County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals' NHS Trust.

I WAS in wards 11-14 of Darlington Memorial Hospital for five weeks and had lovely treatment from doctors, nurses and cleaners. They all do a good job, not forgetting the team that did my operation - a job well done.

The NHS gets plenty of criticism, but we should be very thankful for what it does. - M Kerr, Newton Aycliffe.

CLUFF makes a good point in his cartoon (Echo, Mar 8). Our hospitals could do with clones of Hattie Jacques-type matrons to stamp out MRSA and any other slip-shod goings on. The problem is, how would staff feel about being so strictly supervised?

Times have moved on and authority figures are not always obeyed and held in the respect they deserve. There is much talk of "individual rights" and "equality" in the workplace, which can make it difficult for leaders to lead and give instructions.

Perhaps, with regard to ensuring the safety and health of hospital patients, we need to take a step back into past decades and try a bit of the "Carry On Matron" ethos to see what effect it has. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

RAILWAYS

RAIL company First TransPennine Express says that it has had to replace its York to Newcastle service on Sundays with buses during engineering work on the East Coast Mainline because "the size of Darlington station meant all space was taken up by GNER trains" (Echo, Mar 10).

But Darlington has platforms numbered two and three which could have accommodated the TransPennine two or three-car diesel unit which normally continues to Newcastle - did GNER really use those platforms in addition to numbers one and four?

I suspect the cancellation of the TransPennine Newcastle service - a by-product of which was the halving of the train service between York and Northallerton - was more to do with operational conveniences for TransPennine in relation to the provision of train crews and rolling stock.

Virgin Cross Country reportedly was able to re-route some of its trains via Eaglescliffe to save passengers transferring to buses, but GNER decided to impose a bus journey from Darlington to Newcastle on its passengers, with all the inconveniences this causes, rather than divert trains with diesel haulage as required.

I have already abandoned plans for an Easter holiday using rail travel as I am not prepared to pay rail fares to be bussed from York to Northallerton. - John Buckle, Northallerton.

IN July 1964, I was the last station "Gaffer" at Helmsley on the Thirsk-Malton branch.

A girl of about eight to ten, plus her mum and younger brother in a pushchair, got off the last passenger train. They wanted to be in Middlesbrough, but were probably misdirected at Scarborough.

The account of their cross country journey to Thirsk to catch a train home features in the anecdotal account of my life I am writing. I would love them to get in touch. - David Farr, 81 Mill Lane, Wigginton, York, YO32 2QA.

BURGER VAN

IT'S goodbye to the smell of sweaty onions and greasy burgers outside Darlington's Asda (Echo, Mar 10). Congratulations to store manager Barry Thompson for at long last getting rid of that ghastly burger van.

The last thing you want when you step out of your car is the smell of grease, but it is the first thing you get at Asda. And in today's climate of health conscious eating, it is the last thing Asda needs.

The van also takes up space that is desperately needed for disabled car parking. Taking it away will improve both health and the look of the store.

If people really need to have a burger before they shop, why not move it to the back of the car park and then all sides will be happy. - SR Collins, Darlington.

I AM sorry that burger van owner Alan Crabtree has been asked to stop serving food at Asda car park in Darlington (Echo, Mar 10).

I shop in the supermarket nearly every day, and Mr Crabtree was always talking and laughing with his customers, while he served delicious hotdogs and burgers. I would like to see the burger van back. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

PUNISHMENT

I DON'T know about the law being an ass, but certainly some of those who administer it are.

I refer to the obscenely paltry sentences of eight and 18 months respectively, awarded to two 17-year-old louts convicted of the particularly sadistic killing of fellow pupil David Berry (Echo, Mar 12).

The outrageous leniency of such sentences - amounting to a matter of weeks in either case, given the way our penal system works - is not only a gross affront to the victim's family, adding to their already acute suffering, but it spits in the face of every concept of decency and sanity, devaluing human life and bringing the day of ultimate chaos one stage closer. Nothing, it seems, is sacred and no-one is safe. - T Kelly, Crook.

TONY BLAIR

THE recent attacks on Tony Blair in Hear All Sides must be from Tories. They fail to mention the basic minimum wage which the Tories opposed. More people in work, mass unemployment under the Tories, low interest rates and mortgage rates, the fourth best economy in the world. Cold weather allowance of £300 for pensioners, free television for the over 75s which the Tories would scrap. The New Deal, which the Tories say they would scrap, taking 250,000 out of work. - Gordon Hodgson, Bishop Auckland.