Bed and board

SIR – A cash-strapped Italian school has asked pupils to supply their own lavatory paper (report, October 20).

In Hong Kong in 2000, my husband was admitted to a large local hospital. We were unaware that patients were expected to bring their own loo roll and drinking cup. He took neither. He was, though, supplied with pyjamas, made from such stiff material they would have stood up on their own.

Treatment was faultless and all was well in the end. Holmer Green, Buckinghamshire