OPEN LETTER TO MR JOHN WILDERSPIN

DEAR Mr Wilderspin,People across our county have given the most clear-cut message imaginable over the Fit for the Future consultations- they have absolutely no confidence in this health services review.
By The Newsroom
Published 6th Nov 2007, 17:00 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 03:39 BST

West Sussex Gazette readers have made their feelings abundantly clear through a vote in the newspaper and on our website. In just two months we received 1,411 votes of no confidence with a paltry 17 supporting the consultation ( 16 of which were on line votes). This equates to a massive 98.8 per cent of those responding rejecting the three options put forward.

It is easy to see why. The options would leave the county with a single accident and emergency unit to serve a population of 760,000. In an age of traffic congestion, people were presented with the horrific prospect of patients' lives put at risk through ambulance delays and not reaching hospital in time.

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And if current services are stretched, where is the logic in cutting the number of emergency departments?

To end on a positive note, we wholeheartedly support the new efforts to find a workable, fourth option: what we all want is maternity and A&E services retained at St Richard's at Chichester, Worthing Hospital and Princess Royal in Haywards Heath.

Yours sincerely,

JOHN HAMMOND,

EDITOR,

WEST SUSSEX GAZETTE

Related topics:PeopleWest Sussex Gazette