Sir – Government knows all about bonuses. Did it learn from experience and is that why it wants to limit the banks’ bonus payouts?

The largest single departmental employer in the world, the NHS, will run into economic difficulty of enormous proportions somewhere between 2011 and 2014 and staff numbers will need to be reduced, including doctors, to help alleviate the shortfall. But wasn’t it only a short time ago that doctors were among the worst paid, relative to their hours and qualifications and now there are reports of them being among the highest paid in the country?

The answer is; yes. Some of us would not argue them out of their earnings but this rise didn’t come from recognition and an appropriate salary increase, it came from bonuses for ‘clinical excellence’; things that most doctors were doing anyway.

So now the pot of NHS money is to be divided among fewer. This will inevitably widen the gap between rich and poor, maintain the high cost of administration to monitor bonuses and reduce the service provided.

The banks may not be as squeaky clean but it doesn’t need lessons from incompetents.

Harold Roffey, Headington