WHEN Royal Bournemouth Hospital was opened it had been built and sited with future expansion in mind.

However, it created the anomaly of two general hospitals being located in a relatively small urban area in close proximity to each other, a luxury other similarly sized conurbations do not enjoy.

Bournemouth has expanded modestly over the intervening years to meet the increase in population and the ever expanding demand for services.

Sadly, Poole Hospital is trapped in its island site and realistically cannot expand.

Poole will still provide the top class, though reduced, service they have always done and ultimately the area will be served by a Major Trauma Centre at Bournemouth and among other things, a top class Maternity Unit replacing the long overdue unit at St Mary's Road.

This places this area of Dorset in a far better position than the rest of the West of England where general hospitals are between 50-60 miles apart, meaning, at worst journeys of 25 miles for patients and ambulance alike. They manage, so will Purbeck.

NICHOLAS GIRDLER

Maxwell Road, Broadstone