Gordon, attack?, what attack?, your so dramatic.

   Dear me Pete, perhaps one day you will allow someone to hold a differing opinion to yours, without trying to make an attack on the writer. Just to shut you up. My parents attend the super clinic at Waters Green at the Park Lane Surgery, and they are fully aware of the facilities, and the cock ups. I return to the UK at frequent and regular intervals and remain on the books of the same practise. At the doctors no problem, but the clinics. Try the Podiatry and ring the number for an appointment, you get an answer phone, which does not return your calls. They went in personally to book an appointment, to find that; they could not. The booking desk informed them that they could not make an appointment as that facility had been bid for, and outsourced to Saunders Square, where ever that is. Now that is a stupid layer of bureaucracy at Waters Green.

As for a lot of the facility available, Blood samples, and the anticoagulant clinics, to name but two, are manned by hospital staff who now have nowhere left at the hospital to work from. The Pharmacy apparently is owned and run by the Private firm who built the building, and the largest slice of the building is in the hands of a Private Health company. So please before claiming that a person does not have a clue, or is being silly, just turn around and look in the mirror and see who that applies to.

   As an ex-Pat, you clearly don't have a clue what's happening to the NHS. Some of the changes have been good - the expertise that I, for one, used to tap into in the hospital is now available in the super-clinic. It's been much, much better than it used to be.

The problems in hospitals centre on the management regimes there - outsourcing essential services like cleaning has been disastrous; and there is far too heavy a layer of bureaucracy in the places.

But to deny the improvements that have taken place is not only silly, it's a slur on the very real expertise that now exists at the more local level.

   Never heard such a daft argument put forward. No wonder they are reported to be throwing money away in the NHS to no purpose. What about expertise, and efficiency do they not have anything to do with it these days. That is like asking would you prefer to be treated by a) a First Aider, b) A paramedic, c) a doctor or d) a Specialist doctor, who knows what he is doing and why.

   I can only assume that those like Vic and some of the commentators here don't use the NHS much. They're lucky, must be in the best of health.

Hasn't anyone noticed that new large clinics are now doing what the hospital did? Even X Rays in the near future.

This is the whole point - getting as many services nearer to the patient as possible; and leaving the hospital to do what it's good at.

If this makes a hospital 'smaller', then so be it.

   Macc whatever, you seem to be having a go at two people in this. I hope that Leigh Turner requests your details for the odd slur that you like to cast about, it seems against any person who holds a different view point. That is not what intelligent discussion is about. Mind you this is just a comment section. The only person I see as quips and personal attacks seems to be you. Unless him saying that you were becoming boring counts. The problem with that is that I would agree with him that your comments and attacks are boring, as well as tedious and ill mannered.

As for Peter Heyes the Trust flourished until his chairmanship and did not try to destroy the trust and the hospital, blindly following government dictates. We do not need a medical centre at the hospital, we have one on Sunderland Street. It is rather obvious that you are posting from abroad, as you up to date knowledge of Macclesfield is rather sparse. I suppose that it is ultimate bravery on your part to throw around accusations in anonymity; and that come from one who is also anonymous, but well known to many of my friends by title.

   YOU ARE SKATING ON VERY THIN ICE MAKING FALSE ALLEGATIONS. I AT LEAST LIVE HERE AND DO NOT TRY AND USE IT FOR CHEAP ADVERTISING. I HAVE BEEN COMMENTING HERE FOR A GOOD 18 MONTHS OR SO, AND DO NOT HIDE BEHIND ANONIMITY,ZAS YOU AND SEVERAL OF YOUR FRIENDS.

   It is your unsubstantiated claims that don't really count, "Leigh", since you've presented absolutely no objective evidence in response to any of the questions raised. Instead you repeatedly sidestep them with ever-so-funny quips and personal attacks.

Besides, with you having multiple registered accounts on this Web site, it would appear that it is in fact you who knows a thing or two about "acting out a masquerade" ;-)

   So in your opinion 60,000 local residents views do not count. Seems like you are happy as long as it is your opinion. And, all this from a person living abraod, and acting out a masquerade?

   No, no, I said objective, not objectionable evidence...

   You are becoming boring. Just read the local publications on the matter, going back 2 years.

   Hey... after you've finished congratulating yourself on your ever-so-fine command of English grammar, perhaps you could answer the OTHER question posed:

Was this sort of thing going on during Mr. Hayes' tenure, or was it not?

Why does Mr. Pyrah get such short shrift from you folks? What objective evidence do you have to support your positions on this matter?

   I am not a highly educated man but I do know that the past tense of the verb “to do” is “did”. Peter Hayes is, I believe the past chairman of the trust, so any dealings he had are in the past.

It is what the Trust “does” now that matters. I hope you don’t slink away and sulk as it was you who started the stupidity with silly pernicious comments.

   Next you'll be telling us that "always" doesn't always mean "always" ;-)

   Someones does need to read and assimilate. There is a massive difference between "does" and "did".