Strategic plans for vascular services have not been put into effect

EDITOR,—The media have recently focused on deaths resulting from the non-availability of intensive care. They see but the tip of the iceberg. The problem with paediatric intensive care beds, we are told, is “distribution rather than numbers.”1 The problem with accident and emergency services, we are told by the Audit Commission, is that they need to be centralised.2 Advice such as this, however pertinent, is unlikely to be …