SIR – The Chief Medical Officer of Health is appealing to doctors and nurses from the NHS to volunteer to go to Sierra Leone to help fight the ebola outbreak.

Is this the same NHS that is letting the people of Britain down because of funding and staffing cuts? We could of course keep back some of the millions that we send to Sierra Leone every year to pay to fill the gap left by those leaving for Sierra Leone.

And is this the Sierra Leone that has a past history of aid workers being abducted and/or murdered? And when did our leaders stop leading from the front?

I would have much more respect for the Chief Medical Officer if he asked staff to JOIN him on a mercy mission to Sierra Leone rather than asking them to risk their lives while he sits at home in complete safety making excuses for the lack of resources in the NHS.

Keith Rayner, Laburnum Drive, Baildon