Dear Sir,

I have just returned from Friday afternoon's Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group (SDCCG) meeting at Epsom Downs.

This Group underlines the folly of former Conservative health minister Andrew Landsley's NHS reforms which have put the future of our local hospital into the hands of a cabal who are both secretive and dismissive of local needs.

A doctor is a doctor, not a competent hospital service planner, as  the SDCCG clearly proved this afternoon.

However, with one-third of the Group having links to private medicine, it is clear that their preferred outcome of Epsom Hospital becoming a "campus site containing services from a number of providers, " is to privatise treatment. Otherwise, can the Group please explain what this statement means?

The fact that this Group is shaping the futures of five hospitals  - and the health (or deaths) of Surrey residents - based on travel time predictions from a TomTom which Group members know full well are completely wrong is beyond belief.

In addition, I noted that the Group instantly dismissed the views of Epsom MP Chris Grayling. This is equally shocking as he is representing local residents.

Ian Strutt,
The Greenway,
Epsom