Dear Editor

COUNCILLOR Frank Myers, a non-executive director of Wye Valley NHS Trust, seems determined to cast me as the villain of the piece with regard to the issue of the possible loss of community beds at Ross Hospital; he also seems to be objecting to the length of my response to his last assault on my integrity.

The draft Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) is a long and detailed document containing many options and possible routes for Herefordshire Commissioning Group (HCG) to take for the delivery of future NHS services across Herefordshire. In straightforward terms, I saw the possibility that Ross Hospital could lose some or all of its community beds as a result of the draft STP. My opinion is this would be a false economy for the reasons I have previously stated and is no more than a poorly disguised cost cutting exercise. I set up a petition to gather support for my point of view because the formal #yourconveration on-line survey about the draft STP has been closed since February 2017 thus denying people the opportunity to engage during the engagement period.

In response to Cllr Coker’s letter, I would simply point out that she, as a member of the group tasked to write a response to the STP on behalf of Ross Town Council, had ample opportunity to put forward alternative words to the ones she is now objecting to. No alternative response was forthcoming from her or any of the other councillors who voted against the response that was put before Full Council on 13th March 2017.

I hope we can perhaps now draw a line under this correspondence. I shall continue to gather support for my petition against any reduction to Ross Community Hospital beds, as is my right to do.

Cllr Julian Utting

Ross-on-Wye