Prioritise NHS cash

Almost every issue The Engineer carries news of another 'amazing development' of systems that promise to push back the boundaries of medical science.

But when I turn on my television or tune in to the radio I see and hear not this but yet another report of people dropping like flies in dirty and germ-infested NHS hospital wards.

It seems to me that some priorities are being missed somewhere and that instead of spending millions on hi-tech devices we should do two things.

First, spend whatever it takes on getting our hospitals cleaned up, and second invest in technology that can secure hygiene on the wards.

I'm thinking, for example, of some device that automatically disinfects anyone who walks through a hospital door. A system such as this surely cannot be beyond the ability of engineering expertise?

D Armstrong

Plymouth, Devon