Regarding the bed closures at Savernake Hospital, our MP, Claire Perry, is right to be “desperately suspicious” over the closures.

Earlier this year, night duty staff on Ailesbury ward were told that they had to work on day duty. Some of these staff had contracts which were for night duty only, some going back over 20 years. When the PCT was unable to overturn these contracts, they altered the hours of the night duty. When doing so, they were obliged to protect the staff pay for six months. Again, they intended to ignore this requirement, and it was only after union intervention that they agreed to do so. The result of this is that several night staff are going to be leaving.

Staff are threatened with disciplinary action if they talk to the press. Whilst patient confidentiality is essential, the PCT should not use this excuse to hide the way in which this trust is managed. In this time of high unemployment, and living so near to Swindon, it is amazing that the PCT is unable to find any staff. In fact, when I looked on the PCT employment web site, there was no evidence of any effort to recruit staff this year. The only advert for staff for Ailesbury ward was for a ward manager. This advert was placed on June 24 for three weeks only. As it is their own website, and they do not have to pay for advertising on it, it is difficult to understand why there are no long-standing adverts for staff there. The ward currently has two ward managers. The norm for such a ward is one.

It seems that the limited recruitment which the PCT has carried out and the way in which it has treated its staff is a manipulation of the situation in order to present a picture of poor staffing as an excuse for closing beds.

Jenny Atkins, Reeds Ground, Marlborough.