Letter to the Redditch Standard and the Redditch Advertiser

Dear editor,

In the last three and a half years I have been fortunate to have three wonderful children all delivered in the safe hands of Alexandra hospital. The care and attention given by the hospital staff was excellent and we are lucky to have this service on our doorstep.

Indeed, with the birth of my second son, we only just got to the hospital in time and my son was delivered within 5 minutes of us arriving on the ward. If this service was not available and we had to travel to Worcester, we would not have got to the hospital in time and I would have had to deliver my son on the hard shoulder of the M5 by myself.

I understand that the Worcester acute NHS trust feel that they can replace the Maternity and Paediatric wards at the Alexandra hospital with additional services at Worcester.

However the safety of patients at a hospital starts when they are at the hospital, and unfortunately for some people the most dangerous part of the journey is getting there.

The extra journey time to get to the Worcester hospital would put patient’s safety at risk and cannot be justified at a time when so must extra money is being poured into the NHS.

In my case, who knows what the out come would have been of the birth of my son if I’d have had to go to Worcester.

Please support your local Alexandra hospital and fight to retain your local services; after all you have paid for them in your taxes! You can help fight these cuts by joining the rally at the Alexandra hospital at 11.30am on 5th October.

Regards

Dr Mark Tabbernor