IN his assessment of Tony Blair (Daily Echo, May 11) Mark Hackett, chief executive of Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, wrote "Back in 1997 patients were waiting more than two years for many procedures in Southampton and they now wait less than 20 weeks.' My father-in-law saw a consultant at the Royal South Hants Hospital in August 2006 with suspected skin cancer. He had day surgery there to remove it on May 12.

Despite the departure of Tony Blair, the art of spin will continue to be practised by the likes of Mark Hackett.

STEPHEN DADDA, Shirley, Southampton.