Letter: Answers to the IRA's City bombing

Sir: With reference to the IRA bomb incident in the City of London on 24 April that resulted in many casualties, our organisation would like to bring to the notice of the Secretary of State for Health that most of the victims were taken to the threatened Accident and Emergencies Department at St Bartholomew's, where Stephen Miles, the hospital's co-ordinator (Independent on Sunday, 25 April), stated the blast had made a good case for keeping the unit open.

Our organisation strongly endorses this comment and points out, in view of the prospect of further acts of terrorism in the City area, that it would be a shameful act of irresponsibility to deprive London of this vital service. The Department of Health must think again and, for once, let common sense and humanitarianism override dogma and cost-cutting.

PAM BEARDSMORE

Secretary

KEN CHARLES

Chairman

Hospital Alert Spelthorne

Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex

26 April