Dear Mel. . .

According to recent OECD figures, the UK has proportionately fewer doctors than all developed countries except Korea, Mexico and Turkey. What do you think this says about Mr Blair's New Modern NHS?

Hippocrates, Fulham Well what a proud achievement that is. This is the evidence that the third way is really working. The first way was for doctors to organise everything, the second was for them to organise nothing, but the third is not to have any at all, and you can see that we are well on the way to achieving the NHS plan targets in this respect. Everyone knows that more people die in hospital than anywhere else and, personally, I have always found it suspicious that doctors seem to be closely involved in these deaths. Reducing the number of doctors should sort that out.

The real problem is that most people do not understand statistics, which are very complicated things. But generally if one thing happens and something else happens near it, then there must be a causal relationship between them or maybe with something else. By the way you can read more about this analysis if you purchase a copy of my latest book, Aromatherapy and Horrible Diseases: a new way of looking at epidemiology available from the HSJ bookshop.

You have been very quiet during the MMR furore. What are your thoughts?

Shoot Up, King's Cross What a quaint name. Well as you know, I am not qualified as a GP but I think the evidence is pretty clear and its does not point where you might think. Most children are babies at one time or another, and shortly after they get an MMR jab they start to walk and talk. It is quite clear, therefore, that MMR is an important source of nutrients for growing young bodies.

Also babies have to get used to pricks at an early age and the MMR vaccination sets them up quite well for their later dealings with the NHS. Unfortunately, the press always gets the wrong end of the stick and tells lies to discredit the government (Steady on, Ed). On this occasion, however, they have clearly failed as everyone is quite happy with MMR now that we know baby Leo may or may not have had it.

Why not let Mel help solve your problem? E-mail her, in the strictest confidence, at: Mdestrange@ healthcare. emap. co. uk