IN an article in the Evening News (Saturday, November 29) we read of ambulance crews "missing targets" and of emergency patients being treated by paramedics because A&E could not accept them. Obviously the two are connected.

An Acute Hospitals trust spokesman is quoted saying they are working closely with all parties to deal with the problem.

Well, I hate to say "told you so" after the downgrading of A&E facilities at Kidderminster when, everyone from local doctors, other experts in medical matters and about 50,000 residents predicted this happening.

The most obvious answer to the problem would of course be, to reinstate full A&E services to Kidderminster. The benefits would be huge. One, it would reduce the pressure on Worcester Royal and the Alexandra at Redditch. Two, with ambulances having to travel less distances they would be freed quicker for other calls.

And finally, it would give the 140,000 or so population of Wyre Forest and South Shropshire a fighting chance of survival should they ever require life-saving emergency treatment, something we have not got at the moment.

Of course, this will never happen. Worcestershire Health Authority would have to admit they were wrong to close the A&E at Kidderminster in the first place.

And, with their pathological hatred of the residents of Wyre Forest for questioning the decisions made, re-opening of an A&E department at Kidderminster will never happen however many people die because of a lack of suitable treatment.

So, people from all over the county will continue to suffer until someone in the Worcestershire NHS Trust gains common sense.

GEOFFREY K RYLAND, Chaddesley Corbett, near Kidderminster.