The £5 million deficit of South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust and the consequent review of services this has led to is having a huge effect on the health visiting service in Malvern.

Until I had children, I did not realise the important role health visitors play in our community.

Health visitors are responsible for the health of children under school age. In our modern society women often have little to do with children until they have their own. Health visitors provide invaluable advice, reassurance and knowledge.

Malvern's health visiting service has recently undergone a 'review' of its services. When a full-time health visitor left, her post was given to a part-time member of staff but the case load remained the same.

Last week I went to a child health clinic to be told that the two ladies who support the health visitors in Malvern had been told their posts were to disappear under the review of services and that as a result the breast feeding support group would be lost.

In effect, the 'review' has led to significant cuts in the services offered to the women and children of Malvern. This is surely short-sighted in the extreme.

The work these people do still remains to be done - it is just shared between fewer people who have less time to do it as well as they would like to. The support for women who choose to breast feed has taken years to put together and this too has been removed at a stroke.

People who care about the health and welfare of the youngest in our society are being put under huge pressure, or being told their jobs no longer exist.

If you want to see a health visitor these days, the best way is to go to a clinic - all very well if you have a car to get there - have you ever tried getting on a bus with two children under four and all the paraphernalia you need to take with you?

Have the people who decide how money is spent thought through the consequences of their decisions, both for the staff they employ and the people who use their services?

Health visiting does not have a high profile in our community. I hope this letter raises that profile and highlights the pressures the service is under. I only hope that once the Trust has got its finances sorted out it funds this valuable service properly.

Sarah Swatton, Tennyson Drive, Malvern.