BOSSES at West Herts Health Authority took an unprecedented step of drafting in bouncers for a public meeting about the future of Mount Vernon Hospital.

It is difficult to know what sort of problems the authority's chief executive, Mr David Panter, was expecting to encounter in gentrified Northwood and therefore this appears to be an over-reaction.

Mr Panter has denied they were bouncers, instead describing the men as a "professional security firm".

Playing with words is now a well-used technique by health chiefs and for the ordinary person the words "private security firm" mean bouncers.

Do members of the public who have come to air their legitimate views on the future of a much-loved hospital really deserve to be faced with smartly dressed doormen whose job brief is to eject people who they believe are causing trouble?

Mr Panter clearly believed that such a meeting would attract some sort of rent-a-mob.

Maybe the authority now has a real grasp of the anger felt by local people who are worried Mount Vernon's plastic surgery and burns services will be moved to the other side of London.

Office-bound bureaucrats claim patient care will be better at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, so why are the doctors who are in the theatres every day not jumping for joy at the prospect?

Clinicians and surgeons have put their weight behind the campaign to keep Mount Vernon as a centre of excellence for plastic surgery and the treatment of burns and cancer.

What next for Mount Vernon? Not so long ago it had an accident and emergency department and a world famous plastic surgery and burns unit. It has lost one and may soon lose the other.

Mr Panter's heavy-handed approach mirrors that adopted by health professionals who are looking at decimating Mount Vernon. Both approaches represent an over reaction, and should be traded for something less confrontational and a little more thoughtful.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.