I AM writing to express my serious concerns about the proposed healthcare reforms which will affect our local hospital, University Hospital South Manchester (UHSM).

I have resided in Hale for more than 30 years and have over 25 years experience in NHS having worked as a senior nursing sister.

My late husband was an oncologist and my daughter currently works as an emergency medicine consultant.

Under the proposed partnership between UHSM and Central Manchester Hospitals the acute vascular and surgical services will be moved to a single site in Central Manchester.

This, in my opinion as a Trafford resident, will not improve patient outcomes, provide them with a better quality of service or experience for the local community, all of which this proposed collaboration is supposed to do.

Currently, I along with the residents of Trafford and the wider surrounding areas have an excellent NHS facility that is UHSM (University Hospital South Manchester). I have always felt privileged and reassured to know this is my local hospital.

The reputation of the hospital precedes itself and one particular aspect I admire is the emergency department. To my knowledge the emergency department treats up to 300 patients a day which includes a case mix - major trauma and both acute medical and surgical cases.

If an acute surgical service is removed from UHSM the emergency department will no longer be able to function as it currently stands.

Patients that present to the department with acute surgical or undifferentiated problems that may need a surgical opinion will have to be diverted to another facility in Greater Manchester.

This in my opinion will not be good for the people of Trafford and South Manchester and I feel that we as the patients, have a right to now what is planned for our local heath service.

I am also concerned that this decision has been taken without proper consultations with clinicians who are directly involved in our care.

It has been stated that the collaboration will allow expertise to grow and both sites will be considered equal partners. This will not simply be the case. UHSM will suffer no end in this collaboration. The emergency department will be downgraded to an urgent treatment centre which will certainly not allow expertise to grow.

The potential for UHSM as a hospital is vast. Its locality, geography and existing expertise should be appreciated and not downgraded.

In my opinion these proposals are the worst thing to happen to Greater Manchester Healthcare in my memory and I feel the people of Cheshire, Trafford and South Manchester, all of whom rely on UHSM as their major healthcare facility, deserve better.

Mrs Annette Jackson, Hale