WHAT has Huntingdonshire done to deserve this fate? First our identity was stripped from us. Now we are condemned to inconvenience, discomfort and, possibly, death by having our hospital taken from us. By the time accident and emergency patients have bee

WHAT has Huntingdonshire done to deserve this fate?

First our identity was stripped from us.

Now we are condemned to inconvenience, discomfort and, possibly, death by having our hospital taken from us.

By the time accident and emergency patients have been taken to Peterborough or negotiated the frequently blocked and usually congested A14 to Cambridge, their condition could well have deteriorated sufficiently to cause permanent damage or premature death.

The local roads are already inadequate. How are they going to cope with the additional traffic created by staff and patients' movements plus visitors?

When I was visiting my aunt in Addenbrooke's some years ago, there were delays or evidence of a recently-cleared accident on every occasion - once there were two.

All the additional traffic will result in chaos. The A1 to Peterborough is not as bad, but could that cope with the additional traffic?

Recent Government statistics show Hinchingbrooke performing badly compared to Peterborough and Addenbrooke's - how convenient when they are trying to close it.

A friend was saved from possible permanent damage on being admitted to Hinchingbrooke after having been discharged from Peterborough.

My aunt was saved from losing a kidney by a second operation in York Hospital after her first operation in Addenbrooke's was bungled.

I have had two operations in Hinchingbrooke and my husband has been in intensive care there.

I would go back to Hinchingbrooke any time, but would be extremely worried if I had to go to either of the others.

DEBBIE FLETCHER

Pipers Lane

Godmanchester

THE proposed changes to Hinchingbrooke Hospital have reminded me of my happy years at our old County Hospital (now Millfield Court).

The hospital was founded in 1853 and the completion celebrated on July 25, 1854. Over the years, legacies and small and large donations (including the valuable Hunts Post Bunny Fellowship gifts) made improvements and additions.

It truly was our, the people of Huntingdonshire's, voluntary hospital for 95 years.

Then, on July 5, 1948, the hospital and all assets were handed over to the Ministry of Health - the hospital buildings, furniture and equipment, three big houses opposite on Brampton Road, and £76,000.

That was a lot of money. Many hospitals handed over much less, having had a spending spree before the appointed day.

For those who would like to know the interesting history, I recommend consultant dental surgeon John Houghton Threlfall's booklet The Story of Huntingdon County Hospital which, I presume, is in Huntingdon Library.

The last chapter deals with the progress of the building of the new Hinchingbrooke Hospital and the hope that: "It will provide the compassion and comfort strongly felt in the old hospital".

It finishes with: "Will the patients of the 80s, 90s and the 21st century be able to say the words on the old county hospital front 'I was sick and you visited me'? And it asks: 'Can we and our descendants live up to them?'

That's surely a challenge to us all at this time.

FREDA HUGHES

Godmanchester

I AM writing regarding the local MP jumping on a convenient passing party political bandwagon.

Lest we forget, it was the Tories under Thatcher and Major who brought the NHS to its knees.

Three-year waiting lists, internal markets (my wife was sent to Guy's for the treatment of her kidney stones by Hinchingbrooke, necessitating six expensive return train trips), which gave us dilapidated hospital buildings and lined the pockets of private health insurers.

Don't fall into the trap of making the next election a personality-based one. NHS spending has doubled under this Government, patients are seen 18 weeks from GP to treatment, we have a superb new treatment centre and children's healthcare facility under construction.

Don't blame the incompetence of the local hospital management to manage their budgets on cult political figures like Tony Blair, Gordon Brown or the Labour Government.

By the way, have you also looked at your local schools? Every school is enjoying massive capital expenditure on buildings, improved teachers' pay and local heads controlling local spending.

SPENCER J BROWN

Buzzard Close

Hartford