Suffocated NHS

SIR – Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, and Saffron Cordery, the interim chief executive of NHS Providers, feel strongly about “the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion to an NHS-wide culture” (Letters, June 26).

I am a nurse. Are these managers aware that what front-line nurses and doctors care about most is improving the lives and relieving the suffering of the ill and disabled, and that nurses and doctors feel the biggest daily obstacle to that is the suffocating bureaucracy of the NHS?

The NHS Confederation and NHS Providers are just two examples from a colossal portfolio of NHS-wide bureaucracies, each fully equipped with chief executives earning salaries that front-line staff can only dream of. Tim Morley

London SW4

SIR – Trying to get an appointment with a doctor is futile. Here in Marlborough we are told to expect a four to six-week wait, and then it’s a 10-minute telephone conversation. Despite the NHS budget of over £190 billion for 2021-22, we are receiving the worst ever service, with all failings being blamed on Covid.

However, there are superb alternatives. My husband paid £85 for a private consultation, which took place eight days after the booking. Medication and follow-up tests were arranged and a prescription was fulfilled by our local Boots chemist in 30 minutes, in contrast to the two days required by our surgery.

In 2019 Britain was at the bottom of a major league table for cancer survival in high-income countries, yet we continue to pour taxpayer money into this outdated institution that is failing the citizens it was set up to protect. Carolyn Stimpson

Marlborough, Wiltshire