Dear Editor

Mr Frank Myers’ letter (published in the Ross Gazette last week) implies the petition to retain all of the beds in Ross Hospital is working against those who would want better care for patients.

In fact, the petition is there to protect the availability of the beds in Ross Hospital for the community in the face of the words Mr Myers received and quotes with such certainty and belief from the “authorities” he contacted.

They “confirmed that there are NO plans for Ross Community Hospital to lose all its beds”. The critical word is “all”. It implies that some of the beds could be removed - whether 1% or 99% is of course not clear.

For this reason, the petition is valid and should be supported.

Alastair MacDonald

Ross-on-Wye