IN 1999 the Malvern Gazette pictured a smiling Jim McArthur on its front page after his idea to name a peak on the Malverns Millennium Hill to mark the year 2000 was adopted.

Now the one-time Conservators warden finds himself in need of care at Worces-tershire Royal Hospital and his family has been appalled at the care, or lack of it, he has been receiving.

It has to be said that for every letter of complaint we receive about care at the Worcestershire Royal, we get four or five in praise of the nurses and doctors.

So is this just an isolated incident, are the family over-reacting at a difficult time?

This year I had the misfortune to spend a night at Worcestershire Royal after I got an infection in my eye and, forgive the pun, it was quite an eye-opener.

I had to be woken every hour to have drops put in my eyes - not too difficult you would think, but it didn't happen. I had to wake myself and administer my own drops, I would have been better off in my own bed

I should say the later shift was much better and the fast action of the doctors may well have saved the sight in one eye, for which grateful thanks, but I discharged myself the next day.

There was an elderly man in the bed next to me, who was clearly in much discomfort, yet it took nurses ages to answer his alarm calls, and that's when they answered them at all - I was shocked.

The hospital shouldn't be surprised that people don't complain, we're British after all! We just expect first class service and don't come back when we don't get it. Unfortunately, with the NHS that is not a choice for most people.