The review is taking place because our part of the county was pretty much ignored during the PCT's recent Fit for the Future exercise.

I do welcome the review but I have to say it seems to be just the latest in a long line of reviews and there never seems to be any action when they're completed.

There's also a rather large, gaping hole in the whole thing – before it even started, the PCT ruled out consideration of a new hospital for our area. It seems to me that it's going to be a bit of a pointless review if the most major issue facing our part of the county is left out!

Anyway, I've made these points to the PCT and implored them to listen to the views of local residents and local authorities who are united in their support for a new hospital for the area.

Thousands of people have signed up to the Campaign for Pease Pottage Hospital and hundreds turned up to the rally in May in Horsham town centre, to vote with their feet and show the PCT just how much we need a new hospital.

It's a powerful thing to be able to say that the campaign's supported by local Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, Horsham District Council, Crawley Borough Council, West Sussex County Council, the West Sussex County Times and the Federation of Small Businesses.

We all want the PCT to just listen to us and give due consideration to local people's needs.

That's why I left it until the last minute to get my submission in. If I'd done it when the review started, I wouldn't have been able to feed in the views of people I met at the rally and the people who've recently written to tell me about their dreadful experiences at East Surrey and their struggles to get there in the first place!

I also wouldn't have been able to show that our much-loved local hospitals are, every so often and very quietly, having services taken away from them and transferred to East Surrey – only a couple of weeks ago we heard that, with immediate effect, Crawley Hospital was to lose paediatric surgery. This will have a real impact on many Horsham families.

I know it's highly unlikely that the PCT will suddenly turn around and recommend a new hospital but I sincerely hope it's not too much to ask, after yet another review, that they really consider the views and the needs of the people of Horsham and Crawley. Whatever happens, the campaign will continue – we won't give up the fight!