Medicine’s moved on

sir – As a contemporary of Karen Gwynn (Letters, March 8), I do not recognise her characterisation of modern radiographers.

Today’s students have a far wider curriculum to learn, with more complex machinery, than we had – but they still spend time in practical, in-department learning throughout their course. Modern digital imaging and information systems do demand time “tapping at computers” but this has improved patient care enormously.

Modern radiographers have legal obligations to ensure the correct use of imaging that were not a factor when I qualified in the 1980s. All this is against a backdrop of chronic staff shortages and underfunding.

Laurence Skermer

Consultant radiographer Lichfield, Staffordshire

sir – Karen Gwynn’s experience of “apprenticeship” is similar to my own as a biomedical scientist and my wife’s as a registered general nurse. Later in our careers we were both involved in training and mentoring newly qualified, full-time, degree-level staff.

Like her, we found their lack of work experience, in the laboratory or on the wards, shocking. At university, they learnt the latest techniques but not basics such as how to identify a white blood cell or locate the body’s pulses.

Fortunately the apprenticeship mode of entry for both careers is, once again, available and producing some excellent staff. Perhaps moving back to the older style of medical training for doctors would also improve matters. Adrian Waller

Woodsetts, South Yorkshire

sir – The way to increase the number of doctors, nurses and teachers is to offer free university places. I was paid by my local council to attend a course on the understanding that I had to stay in my post for five years. If I left before then, I would have to pay back a graded percentage of the cost of the course. Leila Steel

Horley, Surrey