WE ARE writing concerning your article of September 10: "New hospital to have fewer beds". It refers to better care in the community as part of the rationale for the new hospital at Whipps Cross having fewer beds. Barts' plan is based on a report which argues that community health services can be so vastly improved that fewer people will need hospital treatment and, Barts alleges, beds can therefore be reduced. The report - Waltham Forest Integrated Care Strategy 2019 - was produced by a private company, Carnall Farrar, which uses modelling to show how this will work.

Recent controversy over exam grades has exposed the problems of modelling if the data aren't good enough.The Carnall Farrar report has no data about current community health services. Despite this omission it makes claims for costs and savings for new models of care, and that these models will reduce the need for people to go into hospital.

In our opinion, the Carnall Farrar report is flawed, untested and aspirational. Our healthcare staff work incredibly hard both in the community and in hospital. But hard work and goodwill cannot provide a safety net for insufficient beds.This is why we are concerned that the plans to reduce bed capacity, in an already overstretched hospital, will put residents at risk of not receiving the treatment they need.

Norma Dudley and Mary Burnett

By email