Fragmented care (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Fragmented care

6:00pm Thursday 26th January 2012 in Letters

I broke my arm just before Christmas, so I can speak with real feeling about the crazy system of being treated by three different hospitals.

On the advice of Southbroom Surgery in Devizes, my husband drove me to Trowbridge Hospital for an X-ray, all this time in quite severe discomfort. I was informed that they did not treat fractures so would let me know where I would need to go for treatment.

Later that afternoon the hospital rang to say there was an appointment in three days’ time at Warminster.

I received excellent attention there, but had I not been lucky enough to have my husband able to drive me, it would have been a nightmare journey, 20 miles each way. Maddening when we have a local hospital which should be available for services for local people, especially when the hospital was paid for by local people.

My physiotherapy is actually at Devizes Hospital. Surely it should be possible to co-ordinate these services instead of travelling all over the county, hardly caring for the environment is it?

I was glad to hear that the Devizes X-ray department will be re-opening soon. It would be great news to learn that the rest of the much-needed facilities were also to be restored. With all the new housing which is happening in Devizes, I would have thought a local hospital would be a top priority and be well used and take some of the pressure off the main hospitals.

For a national health service it appears to be very fragmented, with each trust jealously guarding its own little empire which does not give patients who need help and reassurance when ill or injured the best attention.

I am fortunate to be in good physical shape at 74, but shudder to think how someone less capable and older would fare having a problem like a broken leg or arm.

Mrs M Ainsley, Addington Close, Devizes.