Before David Cameron and his fellow Tories put the boot in again on NHS administrative and secretarial staff (The Argus, February 2), they might like to consider the current plight of staff working in primary care trusts (PCTs) throughout the country.

These PCTs, which "commission"

health services on our behalf and also employ district nurses and health visitors, are undergoing mergers which could see thousands made redundant.

There is a 15 per cent savings target to be achieved in these mergers and most of this will fall on administrative and secretarial staff. They are an easy target as they are not in the public eye in the same way nurses and doctors are.

"Good," I hear people say.

"We don't need these pen pushers." Nothing could be further from the truth.

The NHS is built on a team effort which involves clinical, administrative, managerial, scientific and ancillary staff.

It could not function without all its different parts working together for the benefit of the patient.

On the whole, it is not overflowing with managers and administrators, as the Tories would have us believe.

True, there has been an increase in administrative staff as the Government sets targets which need to be met and monitored but this pales into insignificance when you consider what happened during the last Tory administration.

Under the Tories, something called "GP fundholding"

was introduced. This led to a sharp rise in the number of administrative staff.

The NHS used to spend about six per cent of its budget on administrative staff. Under GP fundholding this soared to 12 per cent.

It beggars belief that the Tories are suggesting a return to this type of system.

It was also interesting to read, in the same article, David Cameron move from pledging to "save the NHS" to "needing to look at the books when elected" to "not having a magic wand".

How very revealing.

Peter Atkinson
Wolseley Road, Portslade