What, why when and if?

Published: 12:19 PM January 9, 2008 Updated: 12:51 AM February 23, 2021

Sir – The various reports in the WHT, December 26, covering the board meeting which confirmed the long anticipated fate of the QE2 Hospital, WGC in favour of the Lister, Stevenage, left me with that uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu. Memories of when, ha

Sir - The various reports in the WHT, December 26, covering the 'board meeting' which confirmed the long anticipated fate of the QE2 Hospital, WGC in favour of the Lister, Stevenage, left me with that uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu. Memories of when, having stripped down an item to rectify a fault, various unidentified parts still remained on the bench despite painstaking re-assembly.

Could it be that hospital chiefs are currently in that same situation of stripping down and finding, already, that there is a mounting pile of 'parts' that they are unable to identify or re-assemble safely?

These parts are the 'how, what, where, when, why and ifs' of a controversial exercise in public health which will not allow second or third chances if the initial attempt shows signs of failure, with ease of access for the less able already a looming priority.

I was also less than impressed with the reported excuses given by the MP for not attending the meeting.

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While the redeeming feature was to be spared the party political innuendo and yet another photograph, I found it a little arrogant on his part to state that he didn't want to dignity the proceedings with a response by attending, when the meeting was not actually about Mr Shapps anyway.

Gordon Aitken,