SIR – No one who has worked in the NHS will be surprised at General Sir Gordon Messenger’s remarks on how it has drifted into its present lamentable situation (report, February 6).
I worked in the NHS for more than 40 years, 34 of them in general practice. The lack of leadership at the highest level meant that most of us felt we were working in a vacuum. Successive health secretaries seemed only to be making a name for themselves by imposing innovations that were often counterproductive.
At regional and local levels there was no noticeable coordination in planning. Repeated redrawing of boundaries led to confusion and a waste of resources. Recurrent reorganisations caused employment uncertainties and lowered morale. Emphasis on irrelevant data-gathering distracted clinicians from clinical care. Communication was either non-existent or vaguely threatening.
We now have a plethora of overpaid managers supervising the sending of confusing and contradictory letters to long-suffering patients. Why does nobody think of asking those of us who worked in the NHS how to improve it?
Dr Rob Caird
Greywell, Hampshire
Greywell, Hampshire
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