I READ of the hospital scandal that 24 seriously ill patients queued on trolleys for up to 16 hours for a bed at the Royal Bolton Hospital, because there were not enough beds to cope (BEN, September 26).

I also read a few days later in the BEN, of a pensioner in Little Lever who sat down and wept when administration staff at the hospital informed him that his appointment with a consultant had been cancelled for the fifth time.

When Dr Brian Iddon first campaigned to become an MP for Farnworth and area in 1997, he promised the electorate of Farnworth at a meeting, that if he was elected he would get 100,000 off the hospital waiting lists at a stroke, by getting rid of Quangos.

Since then the situation has got worse, and people's lives are now at risk. I have noticed that whenever a crisis occurs in his area there never seems to be any action or comments from him. Is this because other issues have taken over his priorities?

Christine Adams

Brook Street, Farnworth