It is right that more could, and should, have been done to welcome EU and Commonwealth citizens to the NHS (Letters, 31 December). But it would have been even better if the UK had trained enough of its own healthcare professionals and paid them well enough to keep them, instead of taking them from other, often needier, countries.
Nigel Turner
London
• We have a family sweepstake to guess the date that our pink camellia will flower (Letters, 30 December). In 2019, it was 15 December; in 2020, 19 November – the earliest ever. It is always flowering on Christmas Day.
Adam Liddell
Bournemouth
• While advocating vaccination round-the-clock, Dr Bharat Pankhania says that elderly people cannot be vaccinated at 3am (Report, 1 January). I am sure that many people in their 80s will confirm that, like me, they are very used to being awake at 3am.
Tom Williams
Winchester
• I’m afraid I cannot join in the euphoria about the 70th anniversary of The Archers. As a six-year-old, my favourite radio programme was Dick Barton: Special Agent. When I heard that it was to be replaced by The Archers, I was looking forward to stories about Robin Hood and co. It is a resentment I carry to this day.
Bill Gregg
Creech St Michael, Somerset
• In view of the difficulty of pleasing everyone in naming the Severn Bridge (Letters, 1 January), surely it should be the Bob Dylan Thomas Hardy Amies Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Peter Elliott
St Albans, Hertfordshire
