use our hospital facilities and then write letters to the Editor full of praise for the medical care, treatment and general attention they receive.

These letters are unsolicited and written by people unfamiliar with Bermuda but are always very sincere. Sometimes it is confusing when you try to reconcile the praise in these letters with the negative things said about the hospitals within Bermuda, especially by some politicians.

Unsolicited tributes are the best tributes and it is not unusual for them to arrive from doctors or other people who are familiar with medical practice and hospital care in the United States. These letters should be very encouraging for the entire staff, especially the staff at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Yet it seems to us that whenever any debate on Bermuda's hospitals takes place in the House of Assembly there are a few politicians who do their very best to tear down the image of the hospitals. Some of these politicians know better.

If you listen to them you could be forgiven for thinking that Bermuda's medical services are rooted in about 1920 and that anyone who has to go to hospital should beware. That is simply not true. King Edward is a good small general hospital which serves its community very well. It seems to us to have improved a good deal in recent years and it has not escaped our attention that the unfavourable reports about emergency service have been overcome.

The problem with politicians tearing down the hospitals' reputation is that it destroys public confidence. It often encourages people to go abroad for very expensive treatment which could be taken care of well in Bermuda. People who are sick and in need of hospital care are naturally apprehensive and to add a fear factor to their problems is simply not fair to them or to the hospital.

MP Dr. Ewart Brown recently told the House of Assembly that the hospital system is sick. It is not problem free, but it is hardly sick. The public tends to believe doctors and that hardly seems to be the way to build confidence in Bermuda's only general hospital. Dr. Brown is in a position to get things done, but you cannot tear down with one hand and build with the other. We suspect Dr. Brown was simply playing politics with the King Edward but that is a destructive and dangerous game.

If there are problems at either hospital then let's work on them, let's make things better not worse. It seems to us that in a small community with only two hospitals the sensible way to proceed is together. Public damnation is not a solution.