Health secretary to meet South Cumbria doctors and MPs over vascular care
Last updated at 15:51, Tuesday, 15 January 2013
BRITAIN’S health secretary has agreed to meet doctors and MPs to discuss plans to take life-saving vascular services further from South Cumbria.
Jeremy Hunt has agreed with South Lakes MP, Tim Farron, to meet he and others concerned about a regional review of vascular services which has seen plans put forward for specialist care to be centralised at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Blackburn Hospital.
The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Furness General Hospital, applied to provide a centre at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, where its patients currently receive top-level surgery.
Yesterday (14) UHMBT was told an appeal against the decision to turn it down had failed.
Mr Farron has been campaigning against the move since it was first proposed.
He has called on county councillors from Cumbria and Lancashire to use their health and wellbeing overview and scrutiny powers to refer the decision to the Department of Health.
Speaking last night in an adjournment debate, Mr Farron called on health minister, Daniel Poulter MP, for reassurance the decision would be given rigorous scrutiny should they do so.
And this morning he used Health Questions to call on Mr Hunt to get involved.
The health secretary has now agreed to meet with hospital consultants and the area’s MPs to discuss the issue.
Mr Farron said: “Yesterday’s decision to reject the legal appeal could lead to thes live of patients in the South Lakes being put at risk.
“It would be simply unacceptable for local people to be expected to travel these distances in potentially life-threatening circumstances.
“I am glad to have had this opportunity to voice my opposition to this decision in Parliament, and will continue fighting as hard as possible to make the concerns of people in Morecambe Bay heard.
“I am very pleased that the secretary of state is taking this issue seriously and has agreed to meet with me and other MPs whose constituents are affected.”
First published at 15:43, Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
Interesteing that there is all this concern over moving vascular from RLI, nobody seemed to care when you removed it from FGH, more people will have died going from FGH to RLI than will ever die from a 10 minute trip from RLI to preston
Have your say
every hospital should be able to cope with heart problems as isnt it one of the biggest killers someone really needs to look into services avalible at fgh you shouldnt have to travel so far as it causes extra stress for patients and familys. family memebrs still have to go to work/carnt always afford to travel to other areas and this causes more harm to patient. even ent patients have to go to lancaster of evening if a problem as the service isnt avalible at fgh out of hours.
Posted by anon on 16 January 2013 at 09:27