Having read the October 5 issue of your paper I am disturbed about the proposed cuts by St Helier Hospital including the decision to stop serving hot meals, asking patients to bring their own drinking water and pyjamas and also eliminating office cleaners and leaving it to overworked staff.

Any hospital stay is often a daunting prospect for most people, let alone those with no family or friends to visit them. To deprive patients of hot meals when their morale is already low could slow or jeopardise a return to good health and would therefore not only be bad for patient care but would end up being a financial drain instead of saving money.

Also for lonely or elderly folk admitted to St Helier there may be no relatives or friends around to bring pyjamas, toothbrushes and drinking water let alone books or crossword puzzles or other comforts to make their hospital stay bearable. So again these cut backs would be both impractical and uncaring.

LEONARD PAICE Sutton