THE mid-summer Ludlow farce ‘The NHS Chief Executive and the Comedy Fund Raisers’ will surely merit one of our local talented playwrights to come forward in time for the next Ludlow Fringe.

The national press, from the Sun to the Guardian, relished the story with colour photos of the blokes and full-page accounts (the Sun).

I tried to make some sense of how a trust chief executive and chairman could get it so wrong; it is surely in the class of Gerald Ratner’s description of one of his company’s products as ‘total crap’ which destroyed his company and for which he is now almost entirely remembered as I fear the community trust’s chief executive will be for her humourless stab at being ‘right on’.

Although the event could be seen as somewhat of a storm in a teacup what it does reveal is the gulf between those of us who live and work here and the managers whose decisions affect our health and wellbeing.

We value our NHS and in particular those local services which make such a difference to the quality of our lives.

We appreciate the voluntary support given to them.

We enjoyed the humour with which this money was raised.

We did not perceive any slur on nursing staff and knew that none was intended.

Information from the BBC website provided food for thought with a measure of insight into why the NHS elite have become so distanced from the rest of us; the chief executive of the community trust draws a salary of £190,000 per annum, a qualified nurse starts out with £23,000, a paramedic with £22,000, the basic wage brings in less than £15,000.

Sadly, they just live in a different world.