Seven-day working would clear NHS backlogs

SIR – Dr Andrew Stein is right (“NHS staff abandon ship on Fridays and weekends, expert warns”, report, November 12) – the NHS needs to operate a seven-day week if it’s to clear the backlogs. Malta’s NHS does it and we don’t have horrendous waiting lists. I had an MRI scan on a Sunday. Geoffrey White

Kalkara, Malta

SIR – Now must surely be a good time for a Royal Commission to review the best use and management of the financial and manpower resources of the NHS. It is clear that too little is spent on increasing the numbers of staff trained and their remuneration, and too much on non-clinical management. The whole service needs reviewing immediately.

A P Cope

Manchester

SIR – How refreshing to hear a grown-up debate about reform in the NHS on the Today programme last

Friday. Two experienced clinicians spoke for 15 minutes without interruption until Nick Robinson brought things to a close due to lack of time.

Perhaps if the BBC spent less time on the tittle tattle of Westminster politics and trying to interrupt politicians in “gotcha” interviews, and more time impartially analysing the big economic, global and social issues affecting us all, irrespective of who we vote for, the vacuity of public debate would be replaced by more civilised and less divisive progress.

John May

Arkesden, Essex

SIR – When can we expect Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England (report, November 9), to tell the nation how she proposes to cut wastage and address inefficiency, and where the additional £7billion in funding is to go?

Rosalind Packham

Datchet, Berkshire