Grandfather Harry Starmer-Smith spoke today of his sadness after a hospital was forced to close a ward set up in memory of his grand- daughter.

His family raised £400,000 to open an isolation unit after 16-year-old Charlotte died of a rare disease.

But now the unit, opened by the Princess Royal in 1993, has been shut because of a shortage of nurses.

Mr Starmer-Smith, 89, of Ponds Lane, Old Marston, Oxford, said: "I am horrified that this should have happened." Charlotte, who died in 1991 of a blood disorder, was the daughter of rugby commentator and former England international Nigel Starmer-Smith and his wife Ros.

Donations flooded in and the £250,000 unit in her memory was opened at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, two years later.

Now, because of the nursing crisis, patients have been moved to another ward.

Nigel Starmer-Smith, who was brought up in Old Marston but recently moved from Ipsden, near Wallingford, to Eye and Dunsden, near Reading, and studied in Oxford at Magdalen College School and University College, described the closure as an absolute disgrace. He said: "I have been extremely distressed that no-one saw fit to consult us before this decision was taken. There is still £120,000 in the fund which could have been used to hire more nurses."

He said he did not blame the hospital, but the issue showed that nurses were undervalued and underpaid.

His father, who helped with the fundraising, said: "I cannot understand it. I have seen the ward and patients are treated in special air-controlled conditions - how you can do that in another ward, I do not know.

"It is so sad. Nigel went to tremendous lengths to get money. Through his rugby connections, people all over the world contributed. It was a great comfort to the family that he was able to do this. I think it was disgraceful that he was not told the ward was being closed." A spokesman for the hospital, which is trying to recruit nurses from Canada and South Africa, insisted that the patients were being adequately cared for and that the closure was temp- morary.

She said: "We are hoping to reopen the unit in December. We regret the upset caused to the Starmer-Smith family."

Oxford's John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals have recently recruited 102 nurses from Australia and New Zealand to ease staff shortages.

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