THE need to protect and expand community hospitals such as Pershore was highlighted by Sir Michael Spicer, MP for West Worcestershire, last Friday.

Speaking at Powick Parish Hall, Sir Michael said: "The time has come publicly to say that all seems not to be well with the new Worcester Royal Hospital. I receive a steady stream of complaints whose pattern is now too clear to be ignored."

He explained: "A combination of what would seem to be faulty design, inadequate staffing and bed shortage are for some people making a visit or stay in the hospital an unpleasant, not to say frightening, experience."

Sir Michael said he had letters including mention of a patient left for days on a trolley and attended by staff who were abrupt in their manner, a patient whose drugs were badly administered and a patient who died in distress. He had also been told of patients arriving for scheduled operations being turned away at the last moment, and a patient with respiratory problems placed in an airless basement.

The most shocking case, he said, was an elderly man who died in the early hours of the morning and was still lying in his bed when a relative visited five or six hours later.

Sir Michael said: "Everyone accepts that mistakes are made in large hospitals. What is worrying about the WRH is the regularity of the complaints I receive about it. It is little wonder that people feel so strongly about the need to protect and expand community hospitals."