SIR - Your front page story headlined Fury at pay rise for NHS bosses' contained a number of serious factual inaccuracies and ill-informed speculation.

First, you refer to 720 redundancies being made by this trust. It is true that we are reducing posts as part of our financial recovery plan, and we aim to save about £8m on pay costs this year to help bridge a funding gap of about £30m.

An approximate figure of 720 was given many months ago as an example of the number of posts (not people) that we needed to reduce our workforce by, but since then we have provided regular updates to show the progress being made in avoiding compulsory redundancies.

By not filling vacant posts, or by redeploying staff, by encouraging new work patterns and by allowing voluntary severance we are aiming to keep any compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum.

After seven months (up to the end of October), only five members of staff have been made compulsorily redundant, and we remain on target to make the £8m million savings. Management and staff representatives have met regularly throughout this very difficult process and discussions will continue on continued efforts to avoid compulsory redundancies where that is possible. Even one compulsory redundancy is one too many but these savings are an essential part of our efforts to put the finances of the NHS in Worcestershire into a position of sustainable balance. As far as pay rises are concerned, wage increases for all NHS staff are subject to national agreement. It is completely wrong to suggest that our staff did not receive the same pay rises as senior managers in 2005/6 and it is disappointing that you apparently accepted and repeated these claims from your source without asking him to provide any evidence to back them up.

The nationally-negotiated Agenda for Change pay structure which covers the majority of our staff (including nurses) gave a cost of living increase of 3.225 per cent. Junior doctors received a cost of living increase of 3.225 per cent, consultants received either of cost of living increase of 3.225 per cent (if they had signed up to the new consultant contract) or 3 per cent (if they remained on old contracts). Senior managers (including myself and other executive directors) received a cost of living increase of 3.225 per cent - in other words, the same as everyone else.

Interestingly, when we published these figures in our annual report (a copy of which was sent to your paper), presented them to our annual general meeting (held in public) and posted them on our website several weeks ago, there was no fury' at all. I wonder why?

JOHN ROSTILL, Chief Executive Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust