DASH 2 was horrified to hear that the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust has seen fit to close Elizabeth South Ward at Devizes Hospital a full three months before the proposed date in October.

We have several questions which the PCT needs to answer in public about the situation.

What is to happen to the existing staff of the ward?

Are they to be redeployed to the PCT area, or are they, in effect, being sacked?

In the minutes of the PCT Board meeting of 22nd May, 2003, an amendment to the original document was proposed by non-executive board member Ken Morrison, to ensure that closures would only take place subject to satisfactory alternative arrangements being in place.

This amendment was duly carried. What and where are these alternative arrangements now?

How is any new increase in demand for beds in the Devizes area to be coped with, if the ward is closed and the staff dispersed, and if no satisfactory care in the community is available?

We have no evidence that the much vaunted 24-hour care at home programme is already established.

Is it already in existence, or is that just more pie in the sky?

We, as representatives of the people of Devizes, want answers now.

The PCT claims it wants us to work with it. How can we do so if promises are broken in such a blatant way?

The attrition of services at Devizes Hospital seems to point to only one thing: That services will not be replaced at the proposed, but as yet, theoretical, new hospital, and that the PCT cannot be trusted to keep its word, even to its own board.

We are deeply disappointed at this turn of events. We recognise that the PCT has a financial mountain to climb, but cannot understand why Devizes seems to be at the centre of all its efforts to recoup its losses.

We only seek equity of access and resource with the rest of the PCT area, which, after all, is Government policy.

The situation is very worrying, and DASH 2 demands a speedy reply, with honest answers to these questions, to be made to the public, who need reassurance about the situation, not more of the usual smoke and mirrors.

We await their response with interest.

Paula Winchcombe