IT IS quite understandable that parents are concerned and worried that a question mark hangs precariously over the future of the Kingfisher Ward at Dorset County Hospital.

My wife and I have two daughters and both, one as a baby of only a few weeks and the other aged five, needed to be hospitalised and taken in to intensive care. We were fortunate that facilities were in place at Dorset County Hospital at the time.

We appreciate, therefore, the plight and anxiety of the parents of the children needing such expert and professional care of doctors, and the frustration of having to travel further afield if the paediatric ward at Dorchester was to be closed.

In illness, time can be very much of the essence. At the same time it has to be stated the proposals of the CCG have yet to be published and consulted upon, probably in the spring of 2016. And as a newly elected governor of the Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, I can only but reiterate the advice of the chief executive that the views of the public should be encouraged so that they are fed into the consultation process: for as governors we represent the interests not only of the NHS Foundation Trust members but also those of the general public.

No decision has been made and none will be made until after a full and extensive consultation has been undertaken, and whilst it is imperative that parent concerns and fears should be addressed in an orderly fashion, one should be careful to avoid the temptation of whipping up a situation where fear becomes the order of the day.

DAVID TETT

Governor of DCH NHS Foundation Trust