On April 15, the Royal College of Nursing pointed out that some 22,300 nursing posts had been lost to the NHS during the last 18 months.
On a national scale, this is appalling. Furthermore, some three quarters of newly-qualified nurses remain unemployed.
Tony Blair and Patricia Hewitt insist that the loss has been only 300.
I have two questions. How many newly qualified nurses in our region remain unemployed? How many of us know that the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals' NHS Trust was reduced by 600 nurses in the period mentioned?
This is twice as many as Mr Blair admits for the whole country. Are our local MPs on the case? I have not heard a sheep's bleat so far!
A total of 22,363 nurses gone in 18 months. It is an abominable legacy, a shameful destruction of the NHS. Wait till Gordon Brown's Budget bites - even more malaise in our local NHS.
But then Oxford East MP Andrew Smith never replied to my letter about that either.
Is he living in the same incommunicado cave as Mr Blair?
Eric Edwards Craufurd road Cowley Oxford
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