SIR – With reference to the letter from Mr Jones, published on June 30 regarding NHS management, I can recall some 50 years ago a politician appointed two or three experienced managers from industry to use their long successful experience to re-organise the management structures in a number of the larger NHS hospitals.

I do not think any of these appointees lasted more than a year.

At the time, hospital managers were known as medical superintendents.

They were practising doctors who had started in the service as medical students.

This ensured that they had experience in the many departments of the service making them exceptional in their ability to manage a wide range of medical problems It would not be difficult to re-establish this principle.

A C Osman
Pershore