Ed Mason has been waiting 60 weeks for a partial knee operation, and David Hinchcliffe says accessing private healthcare is not a neutral act

Frances Ryan’s article rings familiar bells (Young people want to ‘go private’ – I’m a lifelong supporter of the NHS, but I can see why, 20 August). I have been waiting 60 weeks for a partial knee replacement. The hospital website and the NHS website say “average patient waiting time 18 weeks”.

However, at every stage my wait has been beset by avoidable delays: two cancelled appointments rescheduled months later, three months’ delay reviewing the MRI scan, referral from one consultant to another – a “new referral” – and a 12-week wait. After my first pre-op, failure to follow up on outstanding investigations necessitated a second pre-op, after which the clearance for surgery was not communicated to admissions until I pursued it, four weeks later.

Krzysztof Nowakowski and Dr Allan Dodds on the Poles who were forced to fight for Hitler in the second world war

Your report (‘Our boys were forced into the enemy army to save loved ones’: the second world war exhibition dividing Poland, 20 August) makes uncomfortable reading for many Poles, or indeed Poles born in the UK after the second world war.

However, the article fails to mention that around 90,000 Poles who had been forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht later ended up fighting for the Polish Armed Forces in the west. These men would have deserted and crossed over into allied lines or else been captured by allied forces during fighting and taken as prisoners of war. A thorough intelligence debriefing would have followed, and the majority of those deemed suitable then fought against the Nazis.
Krzysztof Nowakowski
Vice-chairman, Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum

‘The most underrated movement in fitness’ is a good way to assess general fitness. Experts share how you can get going

• Share your stories of caregiving for your parents with your siblings

If you want to show off how fit you are, you drop and do push-ups. That’s what happens on TV, anyway. In Top Gun: Maverick, buff fighter pilots do hundreds of push-ups on a hot tarmac. In the late 90s, Demi Moore wowed audiences by doing one-armed push-ups in the movie GI Jane, then again on David Letterman. Once, Michelle Obama and Ellen DeGeneres competed to see who could do the most push-ups (Obama won).

Are push-ups really worth the hype? According to fitness experts, absolutely.

Readers respond to an article that suggests baby boomers should give up their large homes and move into smaller ones

Philip Inman takes a very London-centric view (Can a nation in crisis rely on the baby boomer generation to step up? I think the UK is about to find out, 21 August). Certainly in my small northern town, retirees haven’t had a financial bonanza from property price hikes. Also in my part of the world services that used to be provided by local authorities are now largely undertaken by an army of older people, including litterpicking, gardening in communal areas, local radio, school holiday activities for children, and food bank collection and delivery. Not to mention the myriad charities who couldn’t provide services without the time given by retirees.

At the moment older people are reluctant to move into the housing provided by some private developers, as this can leave a financial headache for their children when they die. Perhaps this is an area where Inman could usefully focus his journalistic zeal rather than scapegoating older people. This sort of reporting, which takes the experience of a small subset of the population and extrapolates that to a whole generation, is intrinsically flawed.
Dr Susan Graves
Lydiate, Merseyside

Sales surge to £112m at fashion business on strong growth online, including new cosmetics products

David and Victoria Beckham and the private equity firm Neo have pumped a further £6.2m into the former Spice Girl’s fashion empire this year as losses widened to almost £5m despite a surge in sales last year.

Sales rose 26.5% to £112.7m in 2024, the brand’s fourth consecutive year of growth, helped by strong sales online and at Victoria Beckham’s London flagship store, as well as a 24% leap in online sales of cosmetics, including a new concealer pen and eyeliner.

Duma Boko announces urgent funding package for medicines to be distributed with military oversight

Botswana’s president has declared a public health emergency due to shortages of essential medicines and equipment, as a downturn in the global diamond market and US aid cuts take a toll on the country’s finances.

The announcement came after the Ministry of Health suspended non-urgent surgeries on 4 August, stating that the country was short of medicines to treat hypertension, diabetes, cancer, asthma and eye conditions, as well as supplies including bandages and sutures and those for sexual and reproductive health.