Letters: Doctors, note!

Sir: Dr John Urquhart (letter, 15 April) should know that the answers to his question as to who will pay for the millennium burden on the NHS created by attempts to procure a birth in the new millennium are:

(i) that doctors in particular, but also nursing staff to some degree, will be expected to work longer hours with shorter rest periods, with no compensation;

(ii) that the fact that the rest of the population will be either cavorting and celebrating or working for treble rates is of no relevance;

(iii) that if there is an increase in medical accidents and delays in dealing with both emergencies and routine surgery it will be another example of falling standards in the NHS, which the taxpayer will find quite scandalous;

(iv) that in no circumstances should the British taxpayer be expected to fork out the same share of national GDP which other developed nations spend on healthcare because we deserve the best in the world and what we pay now must be enough to get it, and anyway how could we afford two foreign holidays and three cars in the family if we had to pay more to those doctors who should be grateful that we have provided them with such wonderful jobs?

A D HOADLEY

Eastbourne, East Sussex