THE article headed "Move to new hospital helps bring down waiting lists" and mentioned that the waiting list for cataract surgery had been reduced from 18 months three years ago to just three or four weeks now.

My recollection is that there was a big push to reduce waiting lists some 12 months or so ago and that many operations were carried out in private hospitals. Most of these operations were for cataract because most of these cases can be done as day cases and the great majority are in and out in 24 hours.

This reduces the total waiting list but does nothing to help those whose stay in hospital is likely to be a good deal longer.

This manipulation of waiting list statistics is of course nothing new. NHS administrators have been playing this game for years.

The public should be aware that the only meaningful waiting list statistics are those where waiting lists can be compared over a period of time in each and every speciality.

We are being promised a new 128-bedded Diagnostic and Treatment Unit, which sounds very fine. I should be interested to know the difference between a diagnostic and treatment unit and a hospital.

The unhappy truth is that within months of its opening it has been realised that the new hospital is too small. A 35-bedded ward is to replace administrative accommodation and a new 128-bedded unit is to be provided. In other words, the capacity of the new hospital is to be increased by over 25 per cent within six months of its opening, which speaks volumes for NHS planning.

With Swindon's ever increasing population and the steady increase in the percentage of elderly people it is exceedingly unlikely that the enlarged new hospital will have sufficient capacity to meet with the likely demand let alone cope with the present waiting list of some 3,000 patients. We should not be fooled by manipulated statistics.

DR C O LISTER

Abbey Meads Ward Councillor

Rodbourne Cheney