Letter: Patients have lost faith: face it

I AM not surprised at the angry response to Richard Horton's attack on the medical establishment (Letters, 21 June). However, I am disappointed at the level of debate and lack of comprehension of the points he was making.

He was careful to say "Doctors have been portrayed as reckless and inept. Such a view is unfair and wrong. Most doctors work hard and care deeply." I agree. I represent several hundred people who have been damaged by exposure to toxic chemicals and many doctors devote energy and time to help those patients. It is the medical establishment which refuses to fund research and continues to deny evidence of chronic symptoms, preferring to attribute them to psychosomatic causes.

Mr Horton's article and his programme on Channel 4, The Citadel, were an attempt to give voice to the concerns of many patients who have no prestigious colleges or institutions to support them. The image of Sandy Macara, chairman of the British Medical Association's governing council, pointing out that complaints of sexual misconduct were only made after the abuse had ended is one which will remain with many patients for a long time.

Elizabeth Sigmund

Callington, Cornwall