Letter: Consultant awards

Sir: With regard to the doctors' 10 per cent pay claim (report, 10 September), I have recently moved and experienced the following costs: solicitor's fees, pounds 110 per hour; plumber, pounds 60 per hour; locksmith, pounds 65 per hour; TV repair, pounds 95 per hour.

The NHS hourly rate for consultants is pounds 28.17, this for a so-called 35- hour week, and takes no account of on-call commitments or time.

In light of the above I would encourage young people with four A-levels to train as plumbers rather than urologists, electricians rather than neurologists, and forecast that the exodus of young doctors from medicine can only increase.

Dr R BANNON

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk