FURTHER to my previous letter concerning the NHS's immigrant workforce, I am aware of the disgraceful fiasco which has left insufficient training places for newly qualified junior doctors.

Nevertheless, there remains a shortage of GPs and consultants.

Also, with regard to the importance of immigrants learning the language of their host countries, it is interesting to note that only one in four of the 260,000 British people now living in Spain has actually learnt to speak Spanish.

Pete Winstanley, Durham.

PETE Winstanley seems to think that the only reason why Brits move abroad to live in other countries is to retire (HAS, Sep 30). That is far from the truth.

The majority of Brits who have moved abroad, especially to countries like Australia, go to find work and live in a nation where foreign cultures are not constantly being thrust down their throats by government.

Mr Winstanley also claimed that immigrants are "vital" to our NHS, as they make up 38 per cent of doctors. That is ridiculous. We have thousands of unemployed British doctors and nurses who cannot find work because immigrants have taken their jobs.

The British Empire has long gone, thanks to the other countries not wanting to be part of it, so it is about time that this Government realised that we do not owe those countries any favours any more.

Let's have more medical jobs for the British please and begin to look after the welfare of the magnificent British nurses who, shockingly, cannot get a job in their own country.

Christopher Wardell, Darlington.