I joined the A&E team at 5pm and stayed until midnight. During the evening the workings of the department, which has recently be restructured into major and minor cases, was explained to me and I was able to shadow the junior doctors as they went about their business. A&E departments have a target to treat patients in under four hours and on this occasion this was easily being met.

I was very pleased to be given this opportunity to see, first hand, the pressures Bournemouth health service face with day in and out. As with many hospitals, there is a need for more staff, both doctors and nurses. Nevertheless, the dedication, commitment, professionalism and friendliness displayed by all the staff was very impressive. There was also evidence of local ingenuity to make best use of staff and resources.

My gratitude also goes to Bill Cloutman, an A&E patient who had been admitted following a heart attack and who allowed me observe him receiving treatment. (When asked if a politician could observe the treatment he replied ' as long as its not Tony Blair!').

One of the local issues, repeated by many who I spoke to, was the problems in hospital parking. PPG 13, is a national guideline on transport and presently prevents the hospital from building additional parking for staff and visitors - with a view to encouraging the use of public transport. Yet for the staff ending their shift at midnight, there is no public transport available and so they rely on the car. PPG 13 is only ' policy guidance' and not a rule. I would strongly argue that this is a case where additional car parking should be allowed and I hope the Council will be supportive in assisting staff and visitors in solving the hospital car parking problems

From what I saw during my visit, it is clear that Bournemouth Hospital deserves its three star rating.

On a related subject, I was dismayed to learn from Westminster last week that Although enjoying a three star rating now, it should have received the same rating in 2002.

It seems Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital was recommended on 12th July 2002 for a three star rating and therefore a capital funding grant of £1m. But when the then Secretary of State for Health saw the recommendations for rating of hospitals in the UK, he observed that South Durham Hospital (which serves his and the Prime Ministers' constituency) only received two stars. Mr Giles Wilmore, Head of the Performance Development Unit at the NHS was asked to revisit the weighting of the criteria used in the rating system. A new paper released on 16th July showing a number of new entries in the hospitals recommended for three star status including Durham. But as there is only £85m set aside to assist the top ranked hospitals then of course there had to be some losers. Sadly it seems, Bournemouth was one of them.

If the rating systems have been altered in this manor, as stated in the December issue of the Health Service Journal and debated (but not satisfactorily dealt with) in the House of Commons on the 7 January 2004, then I would argue that Bournemouth should be compensated for the loss of revenue which they deserve.