C J Meek (Letters, January 22) asks why I waited until I had retired from the NHS before publishing my letter (January 12) about the current crisis it faces. He (or she) also asks if I was afraid of being “vilified as a whistle-blower and suffering the same fate as others…”

The answer to the first question is that ‘in my day’ things were not as bad as they have become now.

The answer to the second question is that I was not afraid to speak my mind when I was working in the NHS. I made my views known to ‘those in authority’ by internal letters to both the local management and to ministers; and I served on many committees (including the then Swindon Health Authority) to try to do my bit. Furthermore, in those days we had a co-operative (far from bullying) management at PMH. I have no experience of the management style at GWH but I am well aware that whistle-blowers in other parts of the country have paid a price for exercising their right to freedom of speech.

The current crisis is not due to local management; it is due to a failure of ministers, MPs and those on the numerous qangos (who ‘govern’ the NHS) to listen to the front line professional staff and to face up to the very real fundamental problem of meeting the demands made upon the NHS.

Finally, it is not just those who work in the NHS who need to “have the engagement to change it”. It is there to serve the public; so the people, who all use it as patients, must be prepared to advise their representatives how to address the basic problem – demand exceeds supply. Malcolm Morrison Retired orthopaedic surgeon Prospect Hill Swindon