Sir, On June 2 The Oxford Times reported on the imminent closure of Witney's Moorview Hospital for the elderly mentally sick. In that piece it is stated that this action is being taken to reduce 'a projected gap in the Trust's budget'.

The fact is that the Mental Health Trust managed to balance its books, but is having to make cuts to help the badly underfunded John Radcliffe and other hospitals.

In a recent report, A Cut Too Far, the mental health charity Rethink examines a situation in which it suggests that mental health services are being 'singled out' in response to the NHS financial crisis. Oxfordshire mental health has already suffered cuts of £1.65m and more are expected.

In 1999, the Government declared mental health to be a priority and made it the subject of its first National Service Framework, specifically because it recognised the neglect which mental health had long suffered. Positive changes were anticipated in this area, that had for too long been ignored and forgotten.

Importantly, it addressed standards of care expected for people with severe mental illness.

So far the Government seems to be content to oversee the reversal of its earlier reforms as part of an invidious system that sees money demanded from the Mental Health Trust that it simply has not got.

Veronica M. Burton, Wheatley