Letter: Not qualified

MAY I correct an error in your report of police investigation into suspicious deaths at Bassetlaw District Hospital (''Police probe hospital deaths'', 20 November)?

Your reporting of police consultations with the detective who conducted investigations into incidents at Grantham and Kesteven General Hospital refers to Beverly Allitt as ''a children's nurse''.

Allitt was not a qualified children's nurse. Her appointment to Ward 4 was made only because of the managers' inability to recruit the appropriate levels of Registered Sick Children's Nurses required to ensure that at least one RSCN was on duty at all times. Allitt was regularly permitted to undertake tasks inappropriate for her level of training. The Clothier Report set this specific fact within the context of generally excessive use of ''bank'' nurses on Ward 4.

Professor Jane Robinson

The University of Nottingham