DOCTORS found guilty of badly letting down their patients have featured prominently in this newspaper of late.

Patients are required to place extra special trust in doctors and, when that trust is broken, disturbing headlines are guaranteed.

It is therefore important to ensure that good doctors - who form the vast majority - are properly represented on our pages.

Dr Bill Lamb, of Bishop Auckland General Hospital, is a case in point. He is more than a good doctor - he is an exceptional doctor in the way that he cares for his patients.

He has rightly earned national praise after raising more than £45,000 by running 1,700 miles for charity. The money is used to buy insulin pumps for children with diabetes, saving them from having to have up to five injections per day.

Dr Lamb has written to the Department of Health about the irony of a doctor having to pound the streets to fund children's diabetes care in the Prime Minister's constituency, in the fourth richest country in the world.

He is not alone, of course. The National Health Service, despite the record levels of investment boasted by Tony Blair, would fall apart without the vast army of fund-raisers providing vital equipment every day.

It serves to underline how chronic the underfunding of the NHS was under previous governments.

We have applauded the present Government for making a meaningful difference to the NHS, particularly in the area of coronary care.

But the admirable efforts of people like Dr Lamb show that it is still nowhere near enough.

When it comes to health, the Government still has to go the extra mile.