I WANT to praise and give thanks to the staff of the Royal Bolton Hospital. I have, for different reasons, recently spent two occasions in their care. I cannot fault the attention and care they lavished on myself and others on the wards, it was exceptional.

I saw first hand how the understaffed, overworked and underpaid doctors, nurses, auxiliary staff, and ambulance service do a magnificent job. They work long hours with little thanks, and due to the penny pinching government , with limited resources. I also witnessed the unbelievable amount of paperwork that had to be completed for each patient, many forms in triplicate or even quadruplicate.

More money should be spent on our Health Service so that more doctors and nurses could be employed, but we are told that there is no money in the pot to do this. However, we then hear the MPs awarding themselves an 11% pay rise, put this money towards the Health Service. I am sure staff in hospitals, indeed any public service worker, would welcome an 11% pay rise, they deserve it, MPs don't.

Hospital managers should be scrapped and their exorbitant salaries be used to employ more useful staff.

Let's get back to the olden days when all hospitals were run by a single matron. Thank you to all care staff at Royal Bolton, and indeed all other hospitals, you are angels. God bless you.

Michael Rawsthorn,

Bembridge Drive,

Bolton,