Correspondence MEDBITAISH 559 use of the National Health Service. In this respect I am sure the medium of television could be used to considerable effect. To me, anyway, it is the demands on my time in attending to trivialities that wear down my patience, and the education of the public in becoming a little more self-reliant and intelligent in its use of our time and training is urgently needed. Leading from this latter point, I am quite sure that a fee, payable by the patient at the time and

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... trievable in part from the National Health Service on application later, is a very necessary step. With the vast amount of detail, problems, and multiple interests that will arise in trying to find a solution I cannot see how a number of our colleagues, spending only a comparatively small amount of time, can ever hope to sort us out. I am aware that they get a considerable amount of help from the B.M.A. secretariat, but I feel that the time has come when our representatives need the help of full-time professional negotiators and advisers carefully briefed in all aspects of our work.-I am, etc., Liss, Hants.