SIR - I must respond to Geoff Tasker (T&A, September 14) when he refers to the NHS as "being the envy of the world".

Since coming to power this government has doubled the money injected into the NHS yet the "output" has increased by a mere three per cent or less.

I doubt your pension fund investors would be rushing to buy shares in an outfit with that sort of record.

In fact, if it were in the private sector it would have gone bust ages ago.

No-one doubts the NHS has its good points but the "envy of the world"? I think that is the envy of the Third World! I don't see many Belgians, French or Germans queuing up to use its services.

However his classic gaffe is when he says "if you are foreign, legal or illegal, you are looked after by the very best people in their field, for free".

Well of course it is "free" if you are foreign because you have contributed nothing at all. But the NHS is for free...really? Excuse me but it is anything but "free" and those of us paying for it know that.

Roger Taylor, Glen Terrace, Halifax