SIR – The story on the U-turn by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in relation to the death of Veronica Stevens (Worcester News, January 31) just adds to the catalogue of neglect cases involving this trust that have received publicity, nationally as well as locally.

To put her husband through a four-year battle to prove that the hospital’s version of events surrounding her death could not be true, to the detriment of his own health, after loyally looking after his wife for so long is a disgrace.

Who was responsible for the original story put out by the hospital?

More and more, acknowledgment of faults and admission of responsibility is having to be dragged out of a management who seem solely focused on covering their backs at all costs.

In order to improve service, errors have to be owned up to, surely?

In years gone by people were worried about going into hospital because of the illness or condition they had – and the prognosis.

The technology may have not been up to today’s standards, but they knew they would meet caring doctors and nurses who would bust a gut to look after them. Many doctors and nurses today are the same, but let’s be honest, some are not.

The service seems swamped with administrators, managers and paperwork too.

It is a truly terrible state of affairs when people (particularly the elderly) are frightened of going into hospital because they are scared of the care they will receive, not of their illness.

And they are scared, rightly or wrongly.

This is not a problem confined to our trust either – just look at Stafford.

If an individual carer or an ordinary person in the street were responsible for more than 100 deaths because of neglect they would be serving a prison sentence – let alone the people who were being paid to provide care, or who were employed to manage that process.

We need a huge dose of honesty in the NHS where care is given the highest priority and faults and mistakes are not covered up but genuinely used to improve service.

RICHARD FARRELL-ADAMS

Worcester