Anyone reading the executive summary of the strategy direction document published by the Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust might be forgiven for believing the rosy picture of the proposals for the Green Lane site in Devizes,

It is encouragingly described as: "The creation of a centre of excellence. . .a new modern community hospital" etc.

For those who read further, the reality falls far short of the dream.

The only dated certainty for Devizes is that 20 beds in the existing hospital will be closed in the autumn of this year.

Everything else falls in the 2005 and beyond category the failed promise with which we have lived for the last 20 years.

Even if everything promised is delivered, it will fall far short of the needs of this large and growing community area.

There is no provision for in-patient care for either the moderately sick or the dying.

Anyone suffering from, for example, pneumonia or a urinary tract infection who, under current arrangements, would be admitted to Devizes Hospital under the care of their GP, will have to be cared for at home or sent to the district general hospitals at Bath, Salisbury or Swindon.

This will be a waste of valuable resources, and a grave inconvenience to the patient and the family members.

The promised out-patients' department will not even replicate those services currently available at the existing hospital and the New Park Street clinic.

The diagnostic centre is only scheduled for further consideration and the maternity unit comes under the same heading.

The solutions proposed by the PCT totally fail to address the needs or the comfort of either the young or the old in this growing community.

Of particular concern is the failure to provide 24-hour minor injuries cover. This will cause major, and possibly fatal, problems to many in the rural hinterland and undoubtedly increase demands on the ambulance service, which is already overstretched.

The PCT has totally ignored the district strategic policies which have directed 87 per cent of Kennet's new housing development to the Devizes community area precisely so that services could be efficiently delivered.

Unless these proposals are robustly resisted by the entire population of the area we shall be fobbed off with a third-rate service driven not by health needs but by short-term financial solutions.

Tony Duck,chairman

Jane Burton

Peter Smith

Nigel Carter

Jeff Ody

Devizes Guardian