I recently returned from being treated at the physiotherapy unit of King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, following an operation I had there on my left shoulder.

The operation was a left rotator cuff decompression and I am likely to be treated by the unit for the next six weeks.

With the benefit of just having experienced life as a patient at the hospital, I am absolutely amazed to discover it is likely to close within the next few weeks.

I watched a junior minister (I don't recall her name) on television answering questions in the House of Commons from West Sussex MPs about the closure of the hospital.

She was far from convincing and left many people like myself still wondering why the Government can allow such a magnificent hospital as this to close, especially at a time when the NHS does not appear to have sufficient resources to cope.

Although I was a private patient at the King Edward VII Hospital, I understand more than half the patients there during the past ten years were treated under the NHS.

While I do not fully understand the politics of the NHS and hospitals such as King Edward VII, I am firmly of the opinion that if the Government is intent on allowing hospitals such as this to close when NHS hospitals in this area are not coping, the general public must fully understand the reasons.

I appreciate some government decisions that are unpopular with the general public still have to be made.

I had similar experience of this while serving as a senior officer with Sussex Police in the late Eighties when, for economic and efficiency reasons, we decided to close many of our rural police stations and reduce the opening hours of others.

On the other hand and - as I suspect - there is no good reason for the hospital to close, the appropriate announcement should be made as quickly as possible.

-Christopher J Page, Gay Street, Pulborough