NHS overhaul

SIR – When the NHS (Letters, January 5) is working it is outstanding. I speak from experience, having recently been diagnosed with cancer and two possible secondaries.

A great deal has been written about the ills of the NHS but little about solutions, though much could be done, and quickly. For instance:

1. Conduct a review of world health systems, including structure, cost and staffing. This should be carried out by a team drawn from industry and the military. No present Civil Service or NHS administrators should be involved.

2. Abolish “diversity” committees and the more than 800 diversity officers on salaries of up to £70,000 per annum.

3. The top salary for an NHS administrator should be no more than £110,000, which is approximately that of a senior NHS consultant.

4. Nurse training should revert to the former, well-tried model, whereby every teaching hospital had a nurse training school in which consultants lectured on their specialities. Degree courses could be made available as a post-graduate qualification.

5. Wards should return to being run by a sister and matron.

6. The “firm” system should return, meaning that there is continuity of care and career advice for junior staff, and the patient knows who is looking after them.

7. During my career, most hospitals had associated cottage hospitals and houses staffed by trained nurses and visited by hospital doctors or local GPS. I visited as a house physician and continued to do so as a consultant. Their reintroduction would have an immediate effect on the availability of beds.

These proposals are based on what worked in the past. They could all be implemented in a matter of months and would save money and boost morale. Leon Sebastian Illis FRCP Lymington, Hampshire