A concerned GP has spoken about the value of St Helier’s vital services.

Martin Searle, from Wiltshire, grew up near St Helier and has also worked in the area.

After hearing the Better Services Better Value recommendation that St Helier Hospital should lose its A&E and maternity, he said: “I was very upset myself to be honest.”

He has had contact with St Helier’s A&E on and off throughout the years for various reasons including when his mother needed emergency care and when his father had a fatal accident.

He said: “It was immensely stressful – it would have been enormously more stressful if he had been carted further away.

“From my mum’s point of view she found it comforting that he went to St Helier.

“It’s somewhere you know – it’s part of your patch.

“People feel better if they know the place they are going to.”

Mr Searle said emergency vehicles do get through the traffic but this is not the same for visitors.

He added: “I’m sure there will be occasions when less time is important.

“If you have got someone in labour in your car in traffic, no-one else knows.”

He said if his dad had have survived he would have been in intensive care.

His mum would have easily and affordably been able to get a taxi to St Helier Hospital when there were no buses.

However, he said: “It would have been incredibly stressful to get to St Georges.

“You mustn’t forget what happens after the actual casualty contact.”