Eileen Berry in her letter (Chronicle, May 9) talks a lot of common sense about the proposed hospital reorganisation. 

She has always listened to, and spoken up for, ordinary people which is why she was regularly re-elected as a Conservative city councillor.

She may well be right that the decision has already been taken to proceed with the proposals despite 21,000 people signing a petition to either retain the existing A&E unit at RHCH or build a new hospital in Winchester.

The local election results in Winchester were clearly bad for the Conservatives. However, I do not believe they were an unqualified endorsement of the council's performance. In addition to the unpopularity of the government I think a contributory factor could have been the proposal to downgrade the A&E unit which is supported by Flick Drummond. Whilst no fault of the Conservative candidates I cannot help wondering how much this issue affected how some people voted.

We have been told that a new hospital at Dummer would be only 10 minutes away up the M3. I recently timed it from the RHCH to the Dummer turning - the journey took 20 minutes so would have been even longer to the hospital itself even for those living in Winchester.

What a pity Flick Drummond did not follow the example of Eileen Berry and listen to the views of residents rather than those of a few hospital consultants!

Andrew Beadle,
Milesdown Place,

St Giles Hill,
Winchester

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