LIKE many readers who have written to the Echo regarding the NHS plans for Southend, Basildon and Broomfield Hospitals, I too am disgusted at the general contempt for the public.

I would not want to be carted ten or 15 miles to be treated at an establishment in an unfamiliar area when I have a perfectly good hospital, in my case Southend, a mile down the road.

Do we have a choice, for example in being able to refuse to being transferred?

A factor that seems to have been totally ignored is that patients’ welfare and recovery is supported and often boosted by access and contact with their families and loved ones.

So carting them off miles away from their home will seriously impact on the ability of family to visit.

No thought seems to have been given to the current traffic congestion on the main roads that serve the hospitals and the added impact of the many housing schemes in the area.

I am left to wonder how people in the NHS can claim that this scheme is for our benefit.

Then last week there was the answer. It has absolutely nothing to do with patient care, a mere inconvenience, but the designs of a bunch of egotistical NHS bureaucrats focussed on securing £118m from the government and using their proposed scheme as the means to increasing their self- importance and thus salaries as justification. – straight out of Animal Farm!

I fully agree with other readers who have commented that all three hospitals should be capable of dealing with the whole range of patient needs and not risk lives by undermining treatment capabilities by this “one size fits all” at individual locations. 

MIKE HANSFORD

Blenheim Chase, Leigh