A&E coverage for rural communities

The Surrey Ad reported last week that the Chair of the Ashford and St Peter's Hospital Trust, Peter Thompson, had written to the paper complaining about the Save the Royal Surrey Campaign's maps showing the size of the 'black hole' in A&E cover faced by communities south of Guildford if the Royal Surrey A&E was to close.

See the maps: http://www.savetheroyalsurrey.org.uk/pr-110507.html

Mr Thompson pointed out that his area - around Chertsey - is more densely populated, and that saving services, like the A&E, in Guildford should not occur "at the expense of the major centres of population".

See: http://www.surreyad.co.uk/news/index.html?article19806

As the Surrey Ad says, this appears to suggest that in the eyes of Mr Thompson the needs of rural communities are less important than more urbanised areas. The Campaign strongly rejects that idea - and also points out in comments reported in the article that we support the retention of all the A&E Departments in Surrey, all of which deliver good services to local people.

But what do you think? Has Mr Thompson got a point? Or is he barking up the wrong tree? We'd really like to hear your point of view.