Letters

Published: 14/02/2002, Volume II2, No. 5792 Page 21

Your news story, 'Research links higher chief exec pay to greater pressure' (page 10, 17 January) rightly states that ambulance trust chief executives receive the lowest earnings.

However, the article goes on to state that the pay ranged from£59,000.

The pay in 2001 ranged from just£40,000, and 20 per cent of ambulance chief executives were paid less than£59,000.

Managing an ambulance trust is no less demanding than managing other areas of the NHS - pay is linked to the trust's income but this need not reflect pressure.

A large trust may, for example, have a deputy chief executive, and an army of administrators, but in a small trust many chief executives work through strategic, business and operational issues on a daily basis.

Malcolm Hazell Chief executive Warwickshire Ambulance Service trust