DOCTORS Bene and Moulton of the Royal Bolton Hospital claimed in a letter that there was not a shortage of nurses, although that was one of the reasons wards were closed last year.

Many experienced nurses who should be in the hospital, however, are now working outside it in Rapid Response, NHS Direct, GP practices and private hospitals, for better pay and conditions.

Others have been promoted off the wards into A&E, intensive care, other specialist areas, and the new specialist team for older people, which they say has been created.

Consequently, some wards have inexperienced nurses, with the numbers being made up by expensive agency nurses and nurses from abroad.

The doctors' view that hospital may not always be the best place to care for the elderly has some merit, but they failed to mention that one of the reasons for using community care is because the cost does not come out of the hospital's budget.

They also omitted to mention that there are staff shortages in community care.

The doctors may have solved the problems in their departments to meet targets and save money, but it appears that they have simply passed the problems on to other hard-pressed parts of the NHS, which does not help the patients who then have to face the same staff shortages.

The public must realise that the hospital will continue to decline until the Government provides it with adequate funding.

(Name and address supplied)