SIR – Junior doctors have become seriously de-professionalised (Letters, December 29). In the 1980s, as junior surgeons, we worked very long hours, but also enjoyed the huge satisfaction of making people better. When judged competent, we diagnosed, operated on and managed the post-operative course of “our” patients, working independently but within the support structure of the consultant-led “firm”. The opportunity for that professional satisfaction has gone. The European Working Time Directive
SIR – Those calling for the implementation of “Plan B” – the compulsory wearing of masks and a return to working from home – must have very short memories.
22 January 2021 • 12:02am
A man walks along Green Street in east London, a normally busy street that is now a road of boarded up shops
Credit: PA/Stefan Rousseau
SIR – Ministers should disregard public opinion polls when determining the timetable for lifting restrictions that affect different segments of the population so inequitably. The social and economic consequences of lockdown disproportionately hurt the young and the poor.
Older people are fortunate to have been prioritised in the vaccine rollout. They are not home schooling their children or losing their livelihoods and businesses, nor will they be among the future generations required to pay off the colossal national debt accrued under lockdown policies.