NHS managers must let doctors do their jobs

SIR – About 15 years ago, I read a report to the effect that there was one manager per bed in the NHS. Since then, there has been a reduction in the number of beds, but has there been a similar reduction in managers?

My daughter-in-law, at that time, was a junior doctor. On one occasion, while doing her ward rounds, she was followed by a man with a clipboard who told her she was spending too much time with the patients.

Is this the consequence of trying to run the NHS like a business rather than a service? A D Scofield

Glastonbury, Somerset

SIR – During the Nineties I managed an anaesthetic department in an NHS hospital, and benefited from having had business training and experience as a medical sales representative.

Part of my mandate was to renegotiate the terms for most of the disposables used. This significantly reduced costs without changing any of the products. As a result, anaesthetics was the only department within that hospital group that did not overspend.

Business tuition could be added as a required module in professional medical services training, with the help of reputable medical companies. Tom Anfield

Saltash, Cornwall

SIR – I agree that a £1 billion overspend in the NHS is a large sum of money (report, June 1), but this should be put into perspective.

The NHS’S annual budget is well in excess of £100 billion. The overspend, therefore, represents between 0.5 and 1 per cent of the total. Any organisation, particularly one subject to the vagaries that assail the NHS, would be proud of this achievement. Anthony Davis

Norwich