Letter - Smaller hospitals are right answer

Reading reports on hospital sites and staffing, I wonder where the local hospital has disappeared to?

I have constantly advocated small, very local, hospitals as opposed to big wasteful hospitals, where people can visit and specialists can call on a regular basis to consult and operate.

The trouble is that the area was and probably still is administered by division 15 in Birmingham.

Losing our lovely hospital in Oswestry because of the the division office in Birmingham showed what the loss of local hospitals means.

I had to attend hospital for treatment and at 90 years of age was driven by ambulance from Oswestry to Telford, more than 40 miles each way. The cost of travel and driver's time could scarcely be justified, but was caused by the centralisation of hospitals.

Had I been admitted to Telford the lack of visitors would have been very upsetting. When I was admitted to the wartime Oswestry & District Hospital, I could see friends and relatives on a regular basis, helping my recovery.

From Oswestry along 40 miles of the A5 to Telford is a hazardous journey not many visitors would wish to undertake.

So much for Telford as a central hospital for Oswestry, Whitchurch, Wem and the North Wales area once covered by Oswestry and District Hospital.

Centralisation of health care could bring about many deaths. The people responsible for advocating it, should have second thoughts.

Ted Roberts, Oswestry