Great support for local hospitals campaign
I was very impressed with the spirited support for the combined campaign to support all the Community Hospitals at the weekend.
The choice of April 1st for the start of the exercise was deliberate, and made the point that the idea of cutting 118 beds in Cumbria’s community hospitals is so daft that it had to be an April Fool.
A chain was built with a ring for each hospital, bearing legends like “SAVE MILLOM COMMUNITY HOSPITAL”, “SAVE KESWICK HOSPITAL” and so on. The growing chain of rings was taken from one hospital to another in turn by various different routes.
All three local MPs, Conservative and Labour, supported the campaign – this is too important to be party political.
I went to Keswick early on Sunday morning to see of the canoist who was bearing the rings from Keswick hospital down Bassenthwaite to Cockermouth, and then took my family to Millom to to see the classic cars which arrived there at the end of the last leg. Throughout the mood was positive, friendly, and constructive.
Closing our community hospital beds is not an economy – their loss will cost the community, the NHS, and the economy far more than it saves.
Throughout Britain, badly thought out proposals to cut beds at community hospitals have come forward as what appears to be a panic reaction of NHS trusts who have been told to clear their deficits. In a normal year there would not be more than one or two proposals to close a community hospital. Currently throughout the UK there are about eighty such proposals. This is not a good way forward.
The choice of April 1st for the start of the exercise was deliberate, and made the point that the idea of cutting 118 beds in Cumbria’s community hospitals is so daft that it had to be an April Fool.
A chain was built with a ring for each hospital, bearing legends like “SAVE MILLOM COMMUNITY HOSPITAL”, “SAVE KESWICK HOSPITAL” and so on. The growing chain of rings was taken from one hospital to another in turn by various different routes.
All three local MPs, Conservative and Labour, supported the campaign – this is too important to be party political.
I went to Keswick early on Sunday morning to see of the canoist who was bearing the rings from Keswick hospital down Bassenthwaite to Cockermouth, and then took my family to Millom to to see the classic cars which arrived there at the end of the last leg. Throughout the mood was positive, friendly, and constructive.
Closing our community hospital beds is not an economy – their loss will cost the community, the NHS, and the economy far more than it saves.
Throughout Britain, badly thought out proposals to cut beds at community hospitals have come forward as what appears to be a panic reaction of NHS trusts who have been told to clear their deficits. In a normal year there would not be more than one or two proposals to close a community hospital. Currently throughout the UK there are about eighty such proposals. This is not a good way forward.
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