WHAT'S happening to our hospitals? Last week we were visiting our granddaughter in the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

At the main entrance, we saw in-patients sat on a wall outside smoking - cigarettes in one hand and an intravenous drip in the other, coupled up to a stand.

This would never have been allowed in the old days when we had a proper matron in charge.

Do you wonder why we have all these bugs?

And not just that, we saw hundreds of cigarette butts thrown on the floor outside the entrance.

All this is walked back into the wards.

Also we noticed most people walking past the hand dispensers provided to cleanse your hands before entering the wards.

MR and MRS K CROSS, Elker Lane, Billington.