It’s time to cut out the NHS middle man

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

The layer of people who do very little (they will, of course claim otherwise) costs a great deal of taxpayers money (Getty)

Having retired as a nurse from the NHS last year with 20-plus-years service, the trend towards employing an increasing number of senior managers, directors and managers has finally come home to roost.

The layer of people who do very little (they will, of course claim otherwise) costs a great deal of taxpayers money. It also diverts money from where it is needed – the NHS frontline.

I hope Wes Streeting has the courage to see where a lot of our money goes, and reduce this wasteful hierarchy. Let’s put the money where it’s needed – recruiting nurses who have paid a lot of money to train for their chosen profession and are prevented from doing so.

David Kennedy

Address supplied

No more ‘free money’ for pensioners like me

I started receiving the winter fuel payment about 10 years ago when still in professional employment, and certainly did not need it at that time. Many of my colleagues thought the same – but no one turns down “free money”. Perhaps we told ourselves that it was just “compensation” because the Labour government imposed some surprising new “stealth taxes”, or because a later Conservative government froze our personal allowances.

Having retired several years ago with a much-reduced income, it may seem surprising that I agree with the decision to withdraw millions of payments. However, essential services have been cut to the bone, and if this helps to turn things around then I am all for it. That will be my “compensation” when I need to call on those services.

I expect that many others would agree.

Paul Stevens

Basingstoke

We must rethink free movement for young people

I read Millie Cooke’s column about Labour holding talks on a “reset” with the EU, and am pleased that a far more ameliorative stance is being taken with our nearest neighbours. It’s a refreshing change, after the ugly rhetoric which was spouted by the last government and its cadre of deluded Eurosceptics.

I am disappointed though for our young people who will not be able to take up the offer of a youth mobility scheme proposed by the EU. This seems rather counterproductive, given that demographic had their automatic rights to work and live in the bloc taken away by the divisive and short-sighted Brexit referendum.

I feel our young people have been deprived of that life-affirming access to other countries and all the inherent benefits that entails. I would surmise too that the public would not be averse to such a reciprocal arrangement. It could be a win-win scheme – looking outwards and not inwards must be the name of the game now. In any case, the government is making inroads into this once very tricky impasse, and this is to be welcomed.

Judith A Daniels

Norfolk

The not-so ‘Mini’

I enjoyed Sean O’Grady’s car review of the oversized Mini Countryman C.

Regarding the ever-growing nature of the Mini, perhaps the various Japanese urban vehicles are the true inheritors of the small car title.

I believe most of these are available only in Japan. Perhaps they deserve a wider audience?

Mark Ogilvie

Horncastle