IT was good to see Mrs Snelgrove (in her column, SA January 16) praising the staff at GWH for their achievements.
However, I cannot allow one of her statements to go unchallenged. She wrote: “Gone are the days of the 80s and 90s when patients died on hospital trolleys waiting for operations” - implying that this happened frequently.
As a surgeon at PMH who treated patients with injuries throughout the 80s, I cannot recall a single instance of this happening. (I cannot vouch for the 90s, after my retirement, but I would be surprised if things were different). Certainly, some severely injured patients (and those with other serious illnesses) died before they could be taken to the operating theatre; but this was because of the severity of their condition - it was not due to any inadequacy of the service.
The main reason that waiting times have come down in recent years (in Swindon and the rest of the country) is because more professional staff have been employed to help meet the demand.
Mr MCT Morrison FRCS
Retired Orthopaedic Surgeon
Prospect Hill
Swindon
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