Sir – In recent weeks, there has been much media coverage of our application to become a NHS foundation trust. This is an exciting development that gives local people – through membership of our proposed foundation trust – a far greater say in how their l

Sir - In recent weeks, there has been much media coverage of our application to become a NHS foundation trust. This is an exciting development that gives local people - through membership of our proposed foundation trust - a far greater say in how their local NHS hospitals are run.

Earlier this month, around 280,000 people across east and north Hertfordshire, as well as south Bedfordshire, received a mailing from the Trust asking for their opinions about our proposals and inviting them to become members. We used a commercially-available mailing list, as we are not allowed to use our own patient database in this way.

While this list did carry some inaccurate records (and we are very sorry where this has caused anyone concern or upset at receiving our mailing), it has also led to many enquiring about becoming a member of our proposed foundation trust.

But the mailing has also had one unintended effect. Inevitably some people did not receive the letter, which was because their details were not contained on the mailing list we used. This seems to have been interpreted that they are not being asked to become members, which I am happy to say is not the case.

We would like to reassure everyone, whether or not they received our mailing, who wants to become a member that we would welcome hearing from them. They can apply online at www.enherts-tr.org or request a leaflet - if they do not have one already - from our foundation trust project team on 01438 781797 or ftconsult.enh-tr@nhs.net.

Nick Carver, chief executive, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust