Hospital missed opportunity

Your report last week shows there is growing concerning over the future of the Royston & District Hospital.

And it is disappointing that neither North Herts District Council nor Royston Town Council sees any point in demanding that the primary care NHS trust actually explains its plans.

We know there are plans because the trust has already had a meeting with Herts County Council and has promised, as it says, a "formal engagement with stakeholders" in the next months.

But should we really be content to wait and then be given a scheme which will probably have already been approved elsewhere?

At the recent town meeting, I raised the question over whether North Herts District Council or Royston Town Council would invite a representative from the health trust to explain the situation.

None of the councillors there gave an assurance that such an approach to the health trust would be made and the questions were simply dismissed, as one councillor said, as being "a health matter".

This was a missed opportunity. All that was needed was for one of our councillors to say that there certainly should be a meeting with the health trust to discuss the hospital and its future role in our community.

Now we are simply left with a situation where the health trust appears to have a hidden agenda.

Les Baker, Royston