The NHS is not beyond reform – but it needs to be taken out of politics

SIR – Week after week, decade after decade, I read that the NHS needs “radical rethinking “(Leading Article, May 16).

Yes, it does – but for far too long politicians have simply thrown more money at the problem in the hope that it will get better, and in order to avoid upsetting the electorate.

The answer is a Royal Commission, but with strict, non-political terms of reference. It must be time-limited, rather than open-ended, and contain recommendations that all parties are committed to accepting.

The naysayers will scream that it can’t be done, but with the right approach, and a willingness to learn the lessons of previous failed Royal Commissions, reform is achievable. Alan Ferguson

Hadleigh, Suffolk

SIR – Management in the NHS has more than doubled in the past two years, while nursing numbers have risen by only 7 per cent (report, May 16).

When, in 1967, I started my first house job as a junior doctor at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Bournemouth, it was run by a medical superintendent, a (proper) matron and a small number of clerical staff working from three rooms.

In my two years there, I witnessed few problems, good morale and great teamwork – even if I was on call on alternate days during my six-month obstetric job.

Dr Malcolm Freeth

Bournemouth, Dorset

SIR – I was an NHS clinical director for several years, in orthopaedics. I also ran a private-practice organisation.

My wife is a GP. She works impossibly hard. There does seem to be a chasm between the frontline and the management of the NHS.

However, this vast organisation cannot succeed. No business could, with limitless demand and staff shortages. Doctors are being asked to do the impossible. Perhaps, in the end, individual users will have to pay for at least some of the services we all want. Peter J F Wade FRCS

Coventry, Warwickshire