I READ with interest last week's Courier article (page three, March 20, Crediton Hospital – one of the town's most important assets) about Mel Stride's efforts to save the beds at Crediton hospital. He is clearly aware of how important this issue is to many local people. As our MP, we would expect him to be fighting our corner on this. Why am I not feeling hopeful that this will have any effect? Does he not realise that the whole situation is the logical consequence of spending cuts and a reorganisation of our NHS that we were promised would not happen? No doubt Mel Stride voted with his Tory-led Coalition Government on this. It's a bit rich that he's now claiming to support the local campaign and blaming the closure of beds on the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). I would be feeling more reassured if the article had included the response of the Health Secretary after Mel Stride's approach to him. It clearly wasn't very supportive or more would have been reported. Di Martin Peppercorn House Sandford