Letters

Your News Focus about merit awards (pages 12-13, 12 March) was even more offensive than the original research by Sam Everington.

It carries a strong unstated implication that those responsible for giving consultant merit awards are biased about gender and/or ethnic origin, and even the implication that they are selfserving.

There is no evidence for such an innuendo, even in Dr Everington's research.

Virtually all medical royal college posts are elective. Most council members and office-holders give a great deal of their time maintaining and improving the quality of medical practice and safeguarding patients' interests.

They do so for no remuneration, and in my experience those who serve, and who do private practice, recognise that the responsibility will diminish if not completely curtail private practice, and therefore their income. They are chosen by their peers because they have achieved high clinical respect.

It is right that a combination of that clinical respect, their public commitment of time and the frequency of financial sacrifice are recognised in the merit award system.

The same general principles apply for those with proven academic excellence in university medical posts, where the commitment to training, research and academic excellence does not carry the salary of an everyday consultant dedicated to maximising private practice. It is entirely appropriate that this service is recognised.

Dr Everington should go back to his research and analyse the gender and ethnic make-up of all the elected council members and of all those doctors holding high academic posts in university medicine, and start again on his percentages.

The proportion of women in this constituency is certainly rising, and so is its ethnic diversity. There is no doubt that this will come to be reflected in the future balance of merit awards.

It should be sufficient to let this trend take its natural course without impugning the motives of those responsible for administering the system.

Professor Roger Dyson, Director, Clinical management unit, Keele University.