In another lifetime, I was the strategic financial planner for the Leicestershire Area Health Authority. I left because of the organisational structure with the region above us and three district health authorities beneath us. These five bodies each had their own accountants, administrators, nurses and doctors in managerial positions so there were many meetings and conflict of interests before decisions were finally made. A spokesperson for NHS Bournemouth and Poole said: “Our role is to make the best use of our resources to ensure local people get the care they need alongside what people tell us they want” (Anger as NHS axes acupuncture clinics, Daily Echo, May 10). Why then is the service being taken away from patients? Clinical evidence was looked at before this service was introduced.

To replace the relatively small cost of acupuncture with increased expenditure on, for example, drugs, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and various joint replacement and other operations seems inadvisable! Reducing NHS bureaucracy is what the new government and local NHS should be concentrating on, not reducing front line services that patients find beneficial.

David H Wells, Sopwith Crescent, Merley