Retirement rumours are false

SIR — I am the Senior Consultant at the North Devon District Hospital and work in the Ear Nose and Throat Department, where I have been employed for almost 30 years. I have recently received letters wishing me a happy retirement and this week I met a GP c

SIR - I am the Senior Consultant at the North Devon District Hospital and work in the Ear Nose and Throat Department, where I have been employed for almost 30 years.

I have recently received letters wishing me a happy retirement and this week I met a GP colleague in Barnstaple, who said he had heard from one of our mutual patients that I was retiring in October.

Evidently the well wishers said they had read it in the paper.

I was quite surprised by this, but evidently there was an ambiguous statement about ENT services a few months ago and I must assume that rumours of my imminent retirement are a misinterpretation of this.

Since my patients were very worried about the continuity of their care, can I now reassure them that I have absolutely no intention of retiring in the foreseeable future (God willing!). I am not only the senior ENT surgeon but now I am the Senior Consultant at the Hospital; that is to say I have been here longer than any of the others.

I should perhaps also refute any scurrilous rumours that the hospital administrators are trying to hasten my retirement. These are, I am pleased to say, completely false. At present the hospital has an Interim (or Locum) Chief Executive, who is doing a grand job.

John Riddington Young, FRCS. (via email)