Air ambulance

Your "Flying Doctor Service" article (your report, 3 March) , may lead your readers to believe that this is a 21st century innovation.

In the 1940s the Department of Health for Scotland led the way with a publicly funded Highlands & Islands Medical Service which supplied an air ambulance facility capable of transporting urgent cases by air from the Hebrides and other outlying locations to hospitals as far away as Glasgow.

Consultants were also able to be flown quickly to the Highlands and islands to assist local GPs.

In support of the 1942 Beveridge Report, outlining the establishment of the National Health Service, the Ministry of Information made a film Highland Doctor (1943) for the Department of Health for Scotland, which shows a dramatised account of the work of the Highlands & Islands Medical Service. Directed by Kay Mander, now 94 and living in Dumfriesshire, it will be published by my company, Panamint Cinema, this summer on a DVD retrospective of this important documentary film maker, who excelled in films about war-time training and matters of social concern.

RUSSELL COWE

Panamint Cinema