Dear Editor,

On Tuesday, July 4th the nursing staff at Ross Community Hospital saved my life!

I arrived with Anaphylactic shock after multiple wasp stings and was in a bad way. Immediately they saw the state of me they set to. Three of them had me stabilised after an hour or so and I was eventually transferred to Hereford Hospital where they kept me in for observation for several hours before I was allowed home. I am sure this wonderful local service is appreciated by all of us and we want to keep it.

Waiting for an ambulance to take me to Hereford or Gloucester might have been too long, one can’t say. So the advent of parking charges is unwelcome but may be inevitable as we try to keep our hospital, which is struggling with its costs. We all know the NHS has suffered cost cutting by recent governments.

Recently I chatted to staff at the hospital about the proposed parking charges and everyone I spoke to was horrified at their possible advent. We’ve gone twenty years without them at Ross and been very lucky. Ross is different to Hereford. Our hospital deals with a lot of older people, not all possess cars, but most have to come in from the surrounding villages where there are not frequent bus services, if at all.

Parking charges are often described as a tax upon illness and in our case, perhaps a tax upon old age. I believe Ross Hospital staff and their grateful patients are absolutely united in their opposition to them.

Meanwhile, we are lucky to have our own hospital. Many local citizens contributed to its original costs, my own partner purchased some beds.

And my own recent story is yet another example of how lucky we are. So if I have to pay to park I shall grit my teeth and pay up! Thank you again Ross Hospital Staff!

Max Wilson

Ross-on-Wye