ROGER Tucker wonders whether “someone in the NHS is hand-in-glove with pharmaceutical suppliers” (October 19).

Firstly, it is not “someone” but the whole organisation and indeed the entire medical profession, here and elsewhere. Secondly, the expression “hand-in-glove” implies equality, whereas the relationship is actually one of master and servant. Chemical companies bought physicians lock, stock and barrel a long time ago.

When, with fellow victims in the ’80s, I was campaigning against the indiscriminate prescription of the drugs which had had a catastrophic effect upon us, we included the absurdity that “doctors” seemed to be duped by pretty packaging, glossy brochures, etc, together with the obscenity of being offered free or cheap shares in these all-powerful concerns.

Also, in my capacity as someone who had previously been briefly reduced to being employed as the European export sales executive of the (now defunct) largest private and independent chemical and pharmaceutical firm in the land, I swiftly learned that style invariably trumped substance.

By the way, may I suggest that Mr Tucker avails himself of the services of his MP if he wants a response to his expensive packing inquiry from the Secretary of State for Health, though I somehow doubt whether it will be as frank as mine.

Anyway, I hope that the abundance of medicines he is obviously taking are doing him far more good than harm.

DAVID DIMENT, Riverside Court, Oxford