By Barrow and Furness Labour MP John Woodcock

Last updated at 16:48, Thursday, 27 September 2012

THE lid has now been lifted on the scale of cuts being imposed on our local hospitals and we need to speak up for vital threatened services – including the future of Furness General’s maternity unit.

Barrow and Furness Labour MP John Woodcock

The damage that could be wrought underlines the folly of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats breaking their promises to protect NHS spending and wasting billions on an unnecessary top-down re-organisation.

The financial straitjacket facing Morecambe Bay health trust is so tight that managers are discussing unpalatable choices, including forcing mums-to-be with complicated births to travel 50 miles to see a consultant.

Ministers and health officials have pledged to listen to local people and we need to hold them to that. Most people accept the NHS needs to change to make the best of advances in medicine and meet increased expectations with finite resources. They also understand the difficulties of providing facilities in a relatively remote area.

But that must be no excuse either for denying people first class care or failing to listen if local taxpayers make clear what is important to them.

To see the strength of feeling here, you only need to look at how local mums, including my wife Mandy, are getting organised to demand retention of full maternity services at FGH. I will be with you every step of the way.

IT was disappointing this week to hear leading members of one of the country’s governing parties arguing against Barrow shipyard receiving orders to build the successors to the Vanguard-class submarines. Instead the Liberal Democrats are peddling the idea that an alternative option could do the job for a fraction of the cost.

The defence establishment is waiting to see the conclusions of the government’s latest study into alternatives to a submarine-launched ballistic missile nuclear deterrent.

But those determined to scrap the successor refuse to acknowledge that previous studies have found their favoured option of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles on adapted Astute-class submarines would be even more costly and not remotely as effective in deterring nuclear war.

FINALLY allow me to send my best wishes to Barrow Raiders who meet Doncaster in the Championship One Grand Final in Warrington on Sunday.

I am hoping to be among the blue-and-white army to watch what promises to be a great end to the season.

First published at 16:17, Thursday, 27 September 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk