I am responding to your front page article and editorial about the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford (Oxford Mail, January 8).

As people know, the NOC has an excellent reputation for delivering high-quality patient care, teaching and research.

But as many patients also know, this care is delivered in pre-war hospital buildings in desperate need of updating.

The NOC has been on its Windmill Road site since 1872 and although it is held in high regard by the staff who work here and patients who are treated here, it is time for a facelift. This is why we are rebuilding the hospital and looking forward to our patients continuing to receive excellent care in state-of-the-art surroundings.

It seems highly irresponsible of you as a community newspaper to raise concerns and anxiety among your readers by not providing the full picture.

The article describes risks and hazards without including what action the trust is taking. This is outlined in detail in the report.

The point of carrying out a risk assessment is to avoid nasty surprises for patients and staff, and delays in our rebuilding programme.

You, rightly, would be the first to criticise us if things that we had not anticipated went wrong.

Your editorial is dripping with cynicism about external advisers justifying their fees by creating long lists of hazards.

This risk assessment is a routine exercise in prudent planning, of which we are sufficiently confident, that we can choose to put it into the public domain to give confidence -- not anxiety -- to people.

We are very proud of the progress we are making with our rebuild and will be inviting members of the public, patients and journalists to see phase one when it opens in February.

ED MACALISTER-SMITH

Chief Executive

Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust

Windmill Road

Headington

Oxford