I READ with interest the letter from Dr SN Booth (Letters, February 22), urging us to settle our differences with the Worcestershire NHS Trust.

The message was that there is a shortage of doctors, and I quote: "....the number of junior doctors we can employ is strictly regulated by the university graduate deans and the Royal Colleges".

This sounds suspiciously like the "last bastion of Spanish customs", as Margaret Thatcher described some unions.

If the Royal Mail were to suggest that letter deliveries in Kidderminster would take place only once a week due to a shortage of postmen, following strict regulation of the business by the postmen's union, the public would rightly rise in protest.

If it was announced that rubbish collection in Bewdley would take place only once a month, due to a shortage of drivers following strict regulation by the drivers' representatives, the public would stone the council offices.

The NHS is the servant of the people, not the master.

The present disaster at Kidderminster Hospital was started under a Tory Government and their MP lost his seat, due in no small way to this in sensitive decision.

The Labour Party's candidate, promising support, won the seat and then backed the health authority.

He, in turn, will lose his seat to the Health Concern candidate. The electorate has had enough.

It will be a desperate reaction from those who have been ignored in a matter of paramount importance - their very lives.

Democracy is about the will of the people.

GRAEME WORMALD

Sabrina Drive

Bewdley