SENDING patients, in need of immediate intensive care, on motorway trips to other hospitals, because of a shortage of cash.
Keeping patients lying on trolleys in corridors for hours, because of a shortage of beds.
Closing Bolton Royal Infirmary, because of a shortage of brains.
These and many more incidents are reported in the BEN on an almost daily basis, but the latest report about having to close the RBH to emergency patients, because of a virus, is just too much.
When "the powers that be", decided, in their wisdom, to close BRI, did they not consider that a virus outbreak -- not exactly uncommon in hospitals -- a fire, a sudden increase in the volume of patients, any number of things, could leave the one remaining hospital unable to cope? Had these wise people, on whom our very lives depend, never heard the adage -- "don't put all your eggs in one basket"?
The doctors, nurses, and most of the other staff at our full-to-bursting hospital, do a wonderful job, but heads should roll in higher places.
Brian Derbyshire
Ribchester Grove, Bolton
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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