Royal Mail’s failure to deliver letters on time turns NHS care into a lottery

SIR – I received an NHS letter postmarked February 9 at 12.30pm on February 16. My X-ray appointment was for 3pm. Thankfully I was able to attend. Had the appointment been sooner, it would have been another one missed.

Catherine Pepinster (Comment, April 4) is right that Royal Mail holds the public in contempt. It is also risking our health.

Penny Ryley Woking, Surrey

SIR – We share your readers’ concerns when it comes to Royal Mail’s proposals to cut second-class deliveries to just three days per week (report, April 4). As the three main national organisations that advocate for the needs of NHS patients, as well as the membership body of all NHS trusts in England, we have raised direct concerns with Royal Mail that this worrying plan may worsen patient safety risks.

Provisional Healthwatch data suggest that more than two million people may have missed medical appointments in 2022-23 due to late delivery of letters, and this will only deteriorate under the proposed new plans. We have made it clear that if the plans go ahead, a solution must be found to prioritise the huge numbers of letters sent from NHS teams, otherwise more people will miss time-critical appointments, appointment changes or vital test results. Along with patient safety risks, this will impact NHS teams as well, with previous estimates on the cost of missed hospital appointments sitting at more than £1billion every year – on top of the disruption for staff and other patients.

Louise Ansari

Chief executive, Healthwatch England Jacob Lant

Chief executive, National Voices

Rachel Power

Chief executive, The Patients Association

Sir Julian Hartley

Chief executive, NHS Providers

SIR – Royal Mail says it plans to deliver second-class mail every other day, three times a week, and first-class mail six days a week. In Rainham and Wigmore in Kent, we receive mail once a week if we are lucky. So the latest announcement will be a great improvement if it happens.

The Mothering Sunday card sent to me by my son with a first-class stamp took eight days to arrive. I am still waiting for the Easter card sent more than eight days ago from my son and grandson. Six cards arrived on Thursday, all posted on March 25. Royal Mail also says that magazines will be delivered on time. I subscribe to the Radio Times, and very rarely does it arrive on time.

Royal Mail provides a poor service that now costs us even more to use. I hope that there will be an improvement.

Annette Morgan

Rainham, Kent

SIR – On Thursday April 4 I received promotional material from Tesco wishing me a happy Easter and inviting me to purchase an Easter egg with an enclosed voucher, which expired on April 1.

Yvonne Bamber Plymouth, Devon

SIR – What a disappointment Royal Mail is. My solution is for Amazon, which delivers to me most days, often twice, to take over the postal service.

After all, if I’m paying £1.35 to post a letter, it should arrive on time. Amazon can even deliver the stamps without me having to queue.

Jo Grimwood Sutton, Surrey

SIR – I worked for Royal Mail for 40 years and can confirm that, even as late as the 1970s, a letter could be posted at 8.30am and delivered by 11.30am the same day (Comment, April 4).

I would empty the postbox at the end of my postal round at 9am and take the letters back to the sorting office, segregate the local letters from the rest and put them through the date-stamp machine, then put them out ready for the second delivery. This would even include the surrounding villages with a slightly later second delivery.

A pleasure to be of service.

David Bainborough Exeter, Devon

SIR – Yesterday I had to pay Royal Mail a £5 fine to collect a birthday card from my aunt. It said the second-class stamp was counterfeit (“Royal Mail investigating problems with new barcoded stamps amid fears customers are being wrongly fined”, report, April 3). My aunt confirms that she bought the stamp from the Post Office. Has nothing been learnt from the Horizon scandal?

Izzy Robinson West Malling, Kent

SIR – I absent-mindedly posted a birthday card to my friend without affixing a stamp. To my amazement, it arrived the next day, with no associated charge.

Is this Royal Mail atonement? Maybe I should forego stamps, ensuring faster delivery than some first-class mail.

Gerry M Prescott Levens, Cumbria