DURING the 40s, 50s and 60s Bradford on Avon had it all, ie general and maternity hospitals with homes for nurses, a medical centre, plus three GPs' surgeries, two NHS dentists and a school dentist.

Bradford on Avon boasted a fully manned police station plus police houses in both Winsley and Holt, a railway station and stationmaster.

All this but where are they now? I ask because Bradford on Avon all this obtained when wages were poor and therefore taxes remained low.

Taxes are now collected in trillions, so what is happening to this vast amassing of money? We should be having new gold-trimmed hospitals. Is it because of poor government policies, lack of funding, badly-run hospital trusts with management that is poor to downright lousy? Are salaries in the public sector far too high, are too many people being paid out of the public purse? Each year more and more of our services are being dumbed down. Each year we pay more for less.

To shed a little light on the subject, many years ago my father said, as you go through life you will have dealings with authorities ie town halls, tax, police and other government agencies. You will soon come to realise they all have one thing in common they work hand-in-hand with fools.

I sincerely hope the years 2005/2006 will not go down as the years "the fools finally won."

R BERRYMAN.

Trowbridge.

  • I WAS pleased to see the Wiltshire Times interest in last week's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting at County Hall.

As you reported I did deny the Westbury Hospital Campaign Group's accusations that we had abdicated our responsibility and had a kneejerk reaction to the PCT's financial dilemma'. The committee appreciate the concerns of the group. In September the committee considered the options before them very carefully and decided, taking into account the impact on the wider community not to object to the closures at this time but to press for the delivery of modernised health services through the Pathways for Change initiative.

We set up a task group to look at the way the closures were being dealt with and this involved interviews with stakeholders, including some from Westbury. We are arranging a further meeting.

We are concerned with the delay in the start of the PCT's consultation process, which is now due to begin on April 7. This will be subject to a rigorous scrutiny process as will the implications of the financial recovery process.

The PCT have to make savings but we shall be seeking clear identification of a medium-term plan for delivering improved, reshaped services. We shall shortly be putting out information of our role in this process.

R WHILE.

Chairman, Wiltshire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

County Hall, Trowbridge.

  • AS a former chairman of the West Wiltshire PCT I am becoming increasingly concerned about the direction it is taking. Never a day goes by without reading about cuts to local services, the latest being that of the closure of Westbury Hospital.

Make no mistake, these cuts are being driven by the government and not the PCT. Carol Clarke and her team are just doing as they are told by New Labour.

To spring the closure of Westbury Hospital on the community is a total disgrace. Carol claimed she wanted to work with the community: she has a funny way of showing it.

CLLR A BARKER.

Melksham.

  • IN your report on hospital closures in west Wiltshire you quote Carol Clark, chief executive of the Primary Care Trust, as saying "Community hospitals are not where we would like them to be at the moment."

I am not sure which we' she is speaking for but less than a year ago there was a hospital in each of the five community towns of west Wiltshire - precisely in the places where we (the residents and patients of the communities) want and need them to be. Government policy also requires healthcare to be provided close to the patient's home, but in west Wiltshire the PCT is inexorably charging in the opposite direction.

Ms Clark indicates that she sees provision of home nursing care as the replacement for hospital in-patient beds. I have just returned from a visit to friends in a PCT area where such a service is in operation. The physical health of their 97-year-old neighbour, a lady who is mentally very alert, has recently deteriorated to the point where she needs assistance to settle her for the night. This lady has been told that a member of the nursing care team would come to put her to bed each night at 5pm! Such arrangements may save money', as is claimed, but they do so at a cost to elderly and vulnerable people which is just not acceptable.

West Wiltshire has a very high proportion of elderly people living alone and there is a critical need for NHS-funded in-patient beds in the communities in which people live and that means each of the towns, not some single facility on the other side of the county. The Bradford on Avon Health Project Group has made specific proposals to the PCT for a resolution of this need for Bradford.

A STURMEY.

Bradford on Avon