SIR - The disclosure by the Health Secretary that the government has "learnt lessons" from the early PFI schemes must be the understatement of the year (Worcester News, December 1).

We now find that our hospital with a capital value of £87m will ultimately cost £942m - which beggars belief.

Taking into account the disastrous closing of the excellent Kidderminster Hospital it fully justifies the description of "amateurish" by Dr Richard Taylor.

The continual underfunding and contributions to the general NHS deficit which has resulted in redundancies and potential closures of services in some local hospitals (having supposedly no effect on patient care) renders the task of our hardworking hospital personnel doubly difficult.

However, why should we expect anything else from a Government that has made such a mess of so many things such as the immigration fiasco (more to come from Bulgaria and Romania) and the prison service overcrowding, not to mention the war in Iraq which goes from bad to worse.

As for our soon-to-go Prime Minister, I can only echo the comments of a well-known motor correspondent who stated that when Tony Blair puts on his concerned and sincere look "it makes me physically sick".

G Walton, Worcester.