NHS boss Simon Stephens has got a big new idea – cottage hospitals.

If only he was there to save Southlands Hospital in Shoreham-By-Sea.

We used to have loads of them before various governments shut them and sold them off to developers.

Simon Stephens reckons a smaller, more intimate environment would be better for patients.

It would stop old people being chucked out of hospital beds in the middle of the night wrapped in blankets to make room for someone else.

He says smaller community hospitals would restore dignity and compassion.

If only he could keep Southlands Hospital, bring back doctors, nurses, porters, domestics and all workers. What a wonderful idea – if only.

B Marchant