I AM writing with regard to the article on the Weston Mercury website about Weston General Hospital's decision to cut agency nurses from its payroll and halt paid overtime due to a �340,000 overspend on staff.

I AM writing with regard to the article on the Weston Mercury website about Weston General Hospital's decision to cut agency nurses from its payroll and halt paid overtime due to a �340,000 overspend on staff.

Last year I helped out in a campaign led by The National Secular Society (NSS) to determine how much each health trust/authority was spending on hospital chaplains, or 'spiritual care' if you prefer.

The national total was around the �40million mark.

Weston Area Health Trust's (WAHT) expenditure was �44,834 a year, a small amount in the great scheme of things, but I doubt it would be seen as an insignificant sum to the patients being treated at Weston hospital, whose level of care must surely suffer as a result of staff cutbacks. The point of the campaign by the NSS wasn't, and still isn't, to remove the chaplains who undoubtedly provide comfort to those patients that hold religious beliefs but to question who should fund these chaplains.

I would suggest that given the level of the proposed cuts to be made by WAHT, now would be a good time for that question to be asked.

DOMINIC WIRDNAM

Homeground

Clevedon.