I FOUND the letter (“Crediton Courier”, November 6, page five) from the elderly wife of a sick husband, describing the almost insurmountable problems she had in visiting him by public transport from Crediton town to Tiverton community hospital, extremely moving.

<7 point>She wrote lucidly and calmly about the difficulties of the five-hour journey from home to Tiverton and back again, which required three buses each way (one without a shelter at Cowley); and said she was fortunate to have good health herself otherwise it would have been impossible.

I cannot think of a more compelling case, among all the contradictory statements and sometimes tendentious statistics from the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group), for the re-instatement of inpatient beds at Crediton Hospital.

Her story is not simply anecdotal, but a factual description of the problems of public transport to Tiverton for everyone.

I would urge anybody who has similar experiences or worse, with a loved one or friend in a bed far from Crediton, perhaps in Tiverton, Okehampton or Ottery St. Mary, to write about it to the “Crediton Courier”.

As the sick husband’s wife remarked: “The battle is not over”.

Dr Christopher Maycock

Neopardy

Crediton