The payment of bonuses at any time (June 3, The secret bonuses) is always going to be controversial, especially at a time of financial austerity, but your article deserves comment.

As an employee of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, I have no objection to bonuses being paid to Executive Board members for meeting “individual and corporate objectives”.

What I do find difficult to accept is that the culture that allows such payments to be made is not fairly extended to the remainder of the workforce.

The meeting of any corporate objectives is the result of the hard work and commitment of the whole workforce, not just those who lead it and, if that achievement is to be rewarded financially, it should be passed on to categories of staff and therein lies the problem with these particular payments.

The board of the OUH, through its chief executive, regularly and readily acknowledges this widespread commitment and the contribution it makes to the success of the trust in providing a first-class health service to the local community and beyond.

Sadly, it is central government policy that determines renumeration made to NHS staff, not the trust and, if these bonus payments are the cause of anger or despair, then those emotions need to be directed appropriately.

As far as the “secrecy” is concerned, the confidentiality of personal income details is always going to be something difficult to agree about.

Most of us like to keep such matters private but, as it happens, I suspect that details of these payments are readily available to the public domain through the Trust’s Annual Report, which is readily available on its website.

R C JAMES, Mortimer Road, Rose Hill, Oxford