YOUR brilliant editorial concerning the role of Blackburn Infirmary (LET, September 15) both picks out what's wrong with the present amenities and resources and compares them with those at Queen's Park Hospital.

Speaking from personal experience as a diabetic, one unit of the Infirmary speaks volumes about allocation of resources and the appalling lack of proper treatment facilities and that is Ward 8 where the staff are undervalued in the job they do.

Obviously, the administrators would point out that there are competing claims for money and that there is only so much money in the kitty.

However, I would like to see them justify the decision to put nurses and doctors in a run-down children's unit when Queen's Park, with exactly the same allocation of resources, can put diabetic referrals in a smart, clean and modern unit. Earlier this year, during the annual diabetes awareness week, a consultant from the Infirmary, writing in the Evening Telegraph, cited the statistics showing that 22 per cent cardiac, heart cases were attributable directly to "at risk diabetic cases."

With such a knock-on effect, putting diabetics in a dilapidated out-patients unit is not only outrageous, but totally unjustified and clearly demonstrates that the accountants and auditors are the wrong people to decide who should or shouldn't have equal treatment and improved facilities.

DUNCAN McVEE, Robin Bank Road, Darwen.

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