DORSET CCG is still closing its collective ears to the already strongly expressed views of South and West Dorset patients, who have made it clear they do not want to be sent to Bournemouth or Poole or Yeovil, they want to be treated at Dorchester.

Following the earlier proposals to send sick babies and children to Yeovil, we are now seemingly being told that 80% of A&E patients will be sent to Bournemouth Hospital.

What has not been explained is how the Ambulance Service is going to expand to meet these much longer journey times.

I already hear of delays of 40 and 50 minutes in ambulances arriving and added to at least an hour to get to Bournemouth Hospital, could mean some patients may not survive the wait and the long journey.

It seems £100million will be spent on expanding Bournemouth Hospital- so why not spend some of that money on Dorset County Hospital to improve services there and treat more patients locally?

The major problem of Bournemouth Hospital is its remote location- five miles from the Hampshire border.

That creates considerable problems for relatives and friends to visit - particularly by public transport - and is the product of some very muddled thinking.

Centralisation should mean a central location - like Dorchester - easy to access from all points of the compass. It’s a crazy concept of centralisation to locate the main hospital at the far eastern extremity of the county.

With maternity and children's services being proposed to be removed and now four out of five A&E patients proposed to be sent to Bournemouth, this would be the start of a long bleed of services away from Dorchester to the far east, forcing patients and visitors to endure long journeys along often busy and clogged roads.

It would also considerably weaken Dorset County Hospital and encourage further cuts in local services.

We patients will need to fight hard to ensure all the excellent services now provided at Dorchester continue there and strongly resist all of the Dorset CCG’s attempts to send patients elsewhere.

This is my personal opinion and I am not speaking on behalf of the Council of Governors, which will consider these proposal at their public meeting on Thursday 13 June at 4pm.

Michel Hooper-Immins

DCHFT Public Independent Governor