I HAVE just spent nine days in Southampton General Hospital. Not having been in a hospital since the 1960s, what a shock!

The staff on the wards are absolutely wonderful, it's just the lack of them! These people serve this community so well and are not appreciated.

I suggest that all the managers who sit in their ivory towers, building bigger hospitals and cutting down on staff should come down on the wards and do the cleaning for a few weeks and see what a strain they put our ward staff under.

Thank you to all staff at the General Hospital you are wonderful.

MRS S MARTIN, Woolston, Southampton.