I just want to comment on the article with regard to the new Roodlands Hospital.

Can I say that the new Roodlands Hospital was supposed to be opened by 2005!

In your article, it said that the hospital would be home to a range of services, including inpatient continuing care beds, mental health inpatient beds, orthopedic and rehabilitation beds as well as shared therapies, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speedch and language therapy, dietetics and music therapy. When you get to the last sentence, it says: “As is currently the case, there will be no A&E department.” OK, my husband and I arrived in Haddington in January 1971 and there was an A&E department at Roodlands!

Here we are building a state of the art hospital and there is no provision for A&E! I cannot get my head round this.

Surely, we must have an A&E at the new hospital at Roodlands. Considering when my husband and I arrived in 1971, East Lothian has grown.

To go back to 1971, we had 55,908 people living in East Lothian. In 2011, the number was 100,850. So we have doubled the population from 1971.

I think quite a lot of people in East Lothian would be with me on this – WE NEED AN A&E at Roodlands.

The provision needs to be made now for A&E, not after the hospital is built, when it will cost a lot more to provide it.

Irene Hopkins Burnside Haddington