Margaret Rowley (July 20, 2006) says the Liberal Democrat Group at Wychavon will rely on money from the Government's new £750 million fund for community hospitals.

Does she realize this is just £150 million a year for five years for the whole country? It sounds a lot, but won't go far as even quite modest hospitals are very expensive. The Conservative administration at Wychavon has learned not to be reliant on promises from this Government, but to get on with things instead. That's why there's a new hospital nearing completion in Pershore, and that's why there's already a group with pooled financial backing, including Wychavon, local GPs, Evesham Town Council and other stake holders, looking into how best to deliver a new hospital for Evesham, as soon as possible. When the time comes, if there's some Government money available we won't turn it down, but we know that if you sit around waiting for hand-outs nothing may happen for years. And look at Malvern, where the Liberal Democrat majority on the District Council has procrastinated for the last three and a half years about alternative sites for their new hospital, and not a brick has been laid yet. Come on Margaret, you usually support Wychavon's Conservatives on health matters - let's all applaud the PCT for holding off the threatened cuts at Evesham hospital once again, and back us instead of relying on the latest Government wheeze.

Judy Pearce, Executive Board Member for Health and Housing, Wychavon DC.