I FIND myself in unusual agreement with Robin King in his call for political unity (at the local level at any rate) in our fight to prevent services being moved from the Alexandra Hospital to Worcester (Letters, October 19).

The response from our newspapers, the council and ordinary people has been admirable and I see no reason whatsoever to go down Kidderminster's road and elect an independent MP dedicated to preserving the Alex.

Electing Dr Richard Taylor did not save Kidderminster's hospital from downgrading.

Jacqui Smith has mentioned smarter management to make savings and better management of social services to ensure home care is available as soon as patients are able to be released from hospital instead of two or three days later would certainly help.

But from my own recent experience at the Alex with a broken leg, for which I received excellent care, the last thing we need at present is a reduction in the number of beds, an idea which has been floated.

In my ward, no bed was empty for more than two or three hours, if that, and as there was no empty beds on an orthopaedic ward, I was in an outlying ward.

One of the problems is unrealistic targets set by the Government, for which I blame Gordon Brown.

He is happy to spend huge sums of money on quangos, which in February numbered 529, and on civil servants, which in 2004 alone increased by 12,000.

What do we get from them? An endless flow of words - verbal diarrhoea - which does no good at all to ordinary people, whether hardworking or not.

Get your priorities right, Gordon, and leave us our hospital.

Councillor Antonia Pulsford

High Street

Feckenham