NHS George Cross

sir – All NHS front-line health workers deserve the highest civilian recognition for their heroic efforts during the pandemic, but awarding the George Cross (Charles Moore, Notebook, July 6) to the NHS, a monolithic organisation with a top-heavy and unproductive bureaucracy, sends the wrong message to those vested interests who brook no institutional patient-oriented reforms.

One is reminded of the infamous award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union in 2012.

It can just as well be argued that the George Cross should be awarded to supermarkets that employed thousands of checkout and delivery staff, who were put at risk by performing essential public services. Neil Voyce

Reading, Berkshire

sir – With between 500,000 and 700,000 people waiting for operations and treatment in NHS hospitals in England and Wales, it is not surprising that in the course of a year the late Mrs Alice Higgs of Cardiff was admitted and prepared for surgery three times.

The first came three months after her diagnosis, but after five days she was sent home. After six more months, she was admitted and prepared – only to be sent home because of other scheduled operations. Two weeks later, she returned and her operation was again cancelled. After that her husband stated that she could not eat or sleep, and within days she had died.

Those who have studied our George-cross winning NHS over the past 50 years will not be surprised that this was revealed in a report to Parliament in 1975. The reason given for this death was “administrative failures, regrettable if unintentional”.

In 1975, the NHS had eight beds per 1,000 of the population. In 2020-21 it has 1.8, and an estimated 10 million people are waiting for treatment.

Dr Max Gammon

London SE16

sir – Might I propose that the NHS be awarded a Bar to its George Cross, provided consultants withdraw the threat to strike in support of their pay demand?

Captain Richard Husk RN

Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire