RE Shiena Bowen the chair of the West Wilts Primary Care NHS Trust's letter in your recent edition criticising both your Save Our Hospital Beds campaign as single-issue and your Opinion column headed How far can we trust PCT.

How can it be reasonable for the trust to be carrying out a strategic review of services to be fully consulted on next year when Dr Rob Matthews, a clinical member of the trust, told Melksham Town Council recently that it is a badly kept secret that Melksham Hospital is going to close as part of that review.

At the same meeting it was reported that trust chief executive Carol Clarke was described as an "impressive performer", more importantly there are hundreds of "impressive performers" working in health care in and around our local communities. These good people are continually seeing their efforts undermined by constant changes in trust personnel and direction where often dubious decision-making invariably leads to low morale, and staff retention and recruitment difficulties.

Why haven't the trust told us about the massive cash injection to cover the next three years, vindicating our claims about serious underfunding leading to historic debts of over £3m which is the "backdrop" of their Strategic Review, or about the Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority's debt of c. £93m, which includes the £3m our trust "owes", seeing £90 of this debt being deferred indefinitely by the Department of Health.

Surely "difficult decisions" are less difficult in view of these financial changes.

I'm disappointed that Shiena Bowen believes putting sticking plasters on cracks in our local health provision has been unsuccessful. A lot of health professionals and voluntary groups have worked hard to support trust and staff initiatives aimed at maintaining and improving our local health provision. It would seem to me that given the new financial situation this is not the time for us to be expecting the cynical destruction of parts of the health service that are dear to many of us, in particular our hospital beds where the chronically sick and dying can be treated and cared for as near to their family and friends as possible, surely the very least a modern civilised society would consider "appropriate" health care.

I personally will be more impressed with everyone working together at maintaining and improving our current levels of health care than rejoicing in the number of stars the trust manages to achieve through reconfiguration, another name for cuts in services.

A WEYMOUTH

Secretary

Friends of Melksham Hospital and Community

Thames Crescent

Melksham