Sir - This year the extra funding for complex cases has been withdrawn by the Department of Health.

This will result in the NOC facing a deficit and result in the haemorrhaging of their specialist skills as they are increasingly starved of this funding.

When the campaign against closing certain departments at the Horton was won we saw how important it was that local people knew what was happening to our NHS. The media was a great help in this. I hope we can similarly get the message across about the NOC being so badly underfunded by central Government. Any reduction in the provision of these specialist services will effect patients from all over the country as well as local people.

How can we let this centre of excellence for chronic bone conditions be destroyed just by a funding formula? How can we influence the local Strategic Health Authority?

One thing is to write to all our local MPs asking them to support the initiative of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Orthopaedic services. This group will soon be calling for a debate on the issues and needs all the support it can get.

Sarah Lasenby, Oxford