LETTERS

Your story about the late Sir Donald Wilson (‘A very big cheese’, 16 August) left readers with the impression that a costbenefit analysis would come out in Sir Donald’s favour. It is high time the record was set straight.

Bryan Stoten’s comment - ‘he was a bully’ - sums it all up. Ends do not justify means: Sir Donald met his performance targets by the most unpleasant methods.

I know of several able former colleagues in NHS management whose careers were either prematurely ended or changed for the worse because their approaches were not consistent with Sir Donald’s Stalinist ‘reign-of-terror’ management style. I know also of the ridicule and contempt that characterised his relations with his own staff.

Two years ago, a local medical organisation to which I belong expressed its intention to make Sir Donald an honorary life member. I was proud to formally oppose the proposal. I assumed I would be on my own.

Quite the contrary: I was delighted to hear some months later that there had been sufficient opposition for the offer to be withdrawn.

Bullies like Sir Donald belong firmly in the 1980s; let us leave them there.

Alex Scott-Samuel Liverpool