Your news story, 'Downgrade of top acute hospital fails to produce planned savings' (page 4, 8 October) is premature in its judgement.

A£9m saving is the objective being sought after the redevelopment of the Queen Mary's site at Roehampton. In our public consultation we stated that we did not expect to see the majority of the savings released for another four years.

It is therefore, far too early to say that the changes at the Queen Mary's site have failed to provide the savings expected.

If our financial planning proves to be wrong when the Queen Mary's site is developed your headline may have some relevance. Right now we are engaged in introducing changes which will bring improvements to local communities while addressing their real concerns.

Sue Gallagher

Chief executive

MSW health authority

Veronica Cotterill

Chief executive

RTR Healthcare trust