The Editor

·          Surrey Advertiser (25th May edition)

·          Camberley Mail (29th May edition)

·          The Rush (31st May edition)

5th June 2007

Dear Sir

Both Professor Marks and the unnamed Surrey A&E specialist should know better and your report, ‘The ‘black hole’ left by A&E closure’ (Surrey Advertiser, 25th May, Camberley Mail, 29th May; and The Rush, 31st May) is nonsense and scaremongering at its worst.

The conclusion, by simply drawing circles with a 10 mile radius around A&E departments, that removing the A&E at St. Peter's wouldn't make much difference, ignores basic facts and logic that the authors are aware of.    It takes no account of population numbers – the areas north of Guildford are densely populated.   The population south of Guildford have important requirements but not at the expense of the major centres of population.     It takes no account of how busy A&E Departments are – at St. Peter’s we handle 44 per cent of Surrey’s emergency attendance, nearly twice the number seen at the Royal Surrey.    It takes no account of blue light ambulance travel times.

Most importantly your report takes no account of clinical outcomes.   Nationally it is recommended that teams of specialists are available 24 hours a day.   This improves clinical outcomes and in Surrey we need to find a way to make this possible which will become more difficult for smaller hospitals in August 2009 when junior doctors hours are reduced further from 56 to 48 hours per week.

Here at Ashford and St. Peter’s we want a well informed debate about how we can save more lives in Surrey, not a debate that is polarised around one hospital and its A&E.   If Professor Marks wants to use statistics, he ought to be careful that they have relevance outside Guildford and its rural hinterland!

Yours sincerely,

Clive Thompson CBE

Chairman