I could hardly believe your comment that you 'regard Britain’s universal free medical care with a kind of inspired awe' (WDDTY vol 13 no 3). There is nothing free about the NHS. We all pay for it through the nose,
Readers’ letters
I am a 42-year-old local government worker. I was due to have arthroscopy on my right knee for cartilage removal but, at the last moment, the operation was cancelled because the surgeon found that I have idiopathic thrombocytopenia