I was recently an in-patient in the soaring new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and, in my experience, criticism of it is unfounded. It is an awesome place. Architecturally outstanding, it offers the residents of Glasgow and surrounding areas a hospital environment that was heretofore unimaginable.

Staff, in order to ensure patients are the beneficiaries of this new approach to hospitalisation, have risen to their surroundings, walking up to 10 miles a shift, while still caring for their patients professionally and uncomplainingly.

This is an environment that promotes healing. Residents of Glasgow, who require to use its services, should count themselves fortunate to have access to such facilities.

As for constant complaints about hospital food, perhaps they come from people fortunate to be regular diners at smart city restaurants. It is perfectly adequate with a wide ranging choice.

The colossus on the Clyde looks intimidating and can be overwhelming to contemplate. But it works.

Christine Martin,

66 Kelvin Court,

Glasgow.

I refer to recent correspondence regarding the lack of NHS rehabilitation facilities for acquired brain injury patients.

My son spent three months in the Southern General Hospital in 2010 under the outstanding care of the staff of the Institute of Neurological Sciences and the Physically Disabled Rehabilitation Unit (PDRU). However, the discharge process into the available rehabilitation services, due to lack of appropriate facilities, could have been catastrophic.

The facility referral to Graham Anderson House, a secure unit in Springburn, on a residential basis to satisfy a need to build community placement where almost 80 per cent of service users have a history of substance abuse, in our view, was totally inappropriate for our vulnerable 18-year-old with an acquired brain injury.

After considerable negotiations we managed to access intensive rehabilitation as an outpatient at Murdostoun, in the middle of nowhere.

Due to the relatively small number of surviving patients with acquired brain injury, there is not the pressure of numbers for the NHS to address the issue of inappropriate rehabilitation despite having a world class neurological facility saving lives.

There is a need for a flexible facility, outpatient and residential, on the site attached to the PDRU that can share facilities and resources on the site of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital EUH and maximise the recovery of patients.

There is a window where the brain will rewire with access to appropriate intensive rehabilitation provided by a multi-disciplinary team of psychologists, physiotherapists, speech and language and occupational therapists but the fifth vital member of the team is family whose loving care, commitment and support will be required for many years as the recovery process continues – long after the professionals have departed the process.

Douglas Harvie,

10 Huntly Avenue, Glasgow.

No need to worry about name-changing hospitals. I telephoned the switchboard at The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. "Southern General", answered the operator.

S MacKay,

44 Woodford Street,

Glasgow.

Your story calling for the return of the cancer unit to Stobhill Hospital had a particular resonance for me ("Campaigners call for return of cancer unit", The Herald, September 22).

In 1980 I lived with my wife and two children in Milton of Campsie and on Saturday, November 22 I travelled into Glasgow by bus en route to work. I had been suffering from stomach pain during the previous two weeks but on arrival at Buchanan Street Bus Station I was in agony and I called my wife, asking her to arrange an appointment for me at the local surgery in Kirkintilloch. I travelled back to Kirkintilloch on the same bus and was met by my wife who drove me to the surgery where Dr Shepard, after a brief examination, told my wife to drive me to Stobhill Hospital where he had arranged my admission.

Three days later a malignant tumour was removed

and in early January I began a course of chemotherapy all of which, with the

odd visit to The Royal Infirmary for scans, was conducted at Stobhill as a day patient. One appointment was arranged for the Southern General Hospital and

the journey, by car, took one and a half hours in each direction and, looking

back almost 35 years later, I think it would have been a nightmare to do that journey every week for several months. Asking patients to do it with traffic as at present is asking too much.

Stobhill was no fashionable, modern, shiny palace but, thanks to the skills and attention of the doctors and nursing staff and all the others whom I may not have met, I am still here, able to wish Tom Herbert and his fellow campaigners success in their endeavours.

Jim Slavin,

Rosebank,

Blackness, Linlithgow.