THE decision by Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale NHS Trust to close the eating disorder unit at Reedley puts into focus the value judgment of these people.

To his credit, the chairman, Brian Foster, did not make the usual pretence of "doing our best for our patients" - he was honest enough to say that this action was taken because the unit was not profitable.

On that basis, surely, every department at the hospital is at risk. Which departments really do make a profit?

Many people assumed that the recent deliberate policy of replacing previous Conservative party and Freemasonry nominees as non-executive directors with Labour party stalwarts would result in a more "caring" attitude to providing services.

That illusion is surely shattered if financial gain is continuing to be considered before patients' needs.

The East Lancashire Health Authority, "purchaser" is being portrayed as being unwilling to finance the project because expected "sales" outside the region have not come up to expectation. How sad!

I thought this was a service owned by this community to be managed in the best interests of this community.

Because of bad management, poor marketing to other potential clients outside the region and a desire to "balance the books", dedicated staff, friends, carers and relatives of mentally-challenged patients left the Trust's board meeting in tears.

Oh, to be fair, some members of the board shed a few obligatory tears - of the metaphoric and crocodile variety!

HARRY HORNE, Brunshaw Road, Burnley.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.