I WOULD like to comment on the PCT proposals for the future of our community hospitals. This is their view of the future as a result of the Pathways for Change exercise.

Someone has put the proposals on view in the windows of the visitors' centre in Westbury and it also tells us there is a 12-week consultation process about to start. They have produced three proposals for consultation and the trick is to see the difference. No one will be surprised to find out that there is only one difference between the three proposals for west Wiltshire.

The differences between the three are: Proposal one, Melksham does not have a New Generation Community Hospital. Proposal two, Melksham has 50 in-patient beds. Proposal three, Melksham has 20 in-patient beds.

Everything else in the three proposals is exactly the same! The closure of all the community hospitals, a new community hospital in Chippenham, new primary care centres, maternity unit being moved to Chippenham, neighbourhood teams etc. As I have said these proposals are on public view in Westbury.

It is absolutely amazing that Melksham is getting a community hospital; surely this town is fairly near Chippenham and in the new Chippenham parliamentary constituency; there is nothing in the south of our district.

In the three proposals on offer there is only one option available for Westbury and Warminster; one of these two towns will get a Primary Care Centre.

The PCT is again treating people with contempt. What other conclusion can anyone come to when we reflect on what is on offer. We are supposed to be in a process of consultation about the future of our health services and what sort of consultation is this?

The PCT has also given the game away as to how they propose to balance the books. It is at the bottom of the page headed The Three Options at a Glance. It says: "Where sites are no longer needed as a result of our plans, the Primary Care Trust will consider selling these for development and making best use of those funds raised to support our plans for the future."

After this no one will need convincing that west Wiltshire PCT is an absolute disgrace. They are destroying what communities in our towns have built and achieved over several generations and calling the process consultation.

M Sutton, Westbury