Regarding Nigel Furness's comments on "sycophantic" correspondence about the NHS (Letters, January 9), I know the writer of the letter quoted to be anything but a sycophant (Oxford English Dictionary definition: "A servile flatterer - a toady").

Her sentiments were particularly deeply felt.

I, too, have received great care and attention during a short stay at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

I do, however, sympathise with Mr Furness's remarks about managers and bureaucracy. I trained as a nurse in 1949 and retired in 1992.

I have felt saddened and depressed by some of the changes.

However, the whole scene has changed in the NHS, with advance technology and the vast increase in the number of patients expecting to benefit thereby.

So it is difficult to make valid comparisons.

The system must be improved and the public must continue to complain until it does. In the meantime, it does no harm to let nursing and medical staff know they are appreciated.

Their morale is not lifted by so much adverse comment.

-P Simpson, Roedean Road, Brighton