Campaigning for the NHS

Liberal Democrat Save our NHS Campaign

Three steps to save the NHS:

1. Stop the cuts
2. Cut the waste
3. Give us back our NHS

The Liberal Democrats have launched a major national campaign to save the NHS from Labour's cuts and incompetence. The campaign calls for an end to savage NHS cuts, for the Government to stop wasting billions of pounds of health spending and for local people to have more say over local health services.

   Ming Campbell said, "I know from my own experience just how important the NHS is, and how hard nurses, doctors and other staff work.

"But by trying to control every detail of what goes on in the NHS the Labour Government has wasted money and caused a massive wave of cuts."

Phil Campaigning in Parliament - NHS deficits

NHS Deficits - 12th March 2007

Health Care in Harrogate and Knaresborough - 25th July 2006

NHS Performance in Harrogate and Knaresborough - 7th June 2006

Prime Ministers Questions - Health Cuts in Harrogate and Knaresborough - 19th April 2006

Updates:

In April 2007 I wrote to constituents who have previously contacted me about health related issues asking them to help me build up a picture of the effects of the current cuts in our local health services.  

My letter stated:

The North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust, established only a few months ago, already faces a huge deficit, including some £37 million inherited from its predecessor Primary Care Trusts.   In order to try to reduce the deficit and to avoid future overspends, the PCT has imposed strict limitations on non-urgent treatment and on the prescription of certain drugs.  As a result operations are being delayed, treatments withdrawn, waiting times extended and drugs withheld.

I have recently written to Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, to let her know of my grave concern about the effects that these cuts will have for my constituents and to ask her to write off the historic debt that the North Yorkshire and York PCT has inherited from the former PCTs.   This would allow the current PCT to focus on the challenge they still face as a result of an annual £20 million budget shortfall.

Ms Hewitt's response to me, sent via one of her junior ministers, not only failed to answer my questions, but also failed to acknowledge how serious the current situation is.

Earlier this month I challenged Health Minister Andy Burnham MP about our local health service during a debate in the House of Commons.   I enclose a copy of my speech which I hope you will find of interest.   I have also once again tackled Ministers about the state of NHS dentistry in the constituency.

It would be extremely helpful for my campaign for our local health services if I were able to provide the Secretary of State with detailed information about the effects that the cuts are having on individuals and their families.   Some people have already contacted me to provide this and I would be very grateful if others were able to write to me about their personal experiences.    Information will of course be treated with the utmost confidentiality.

I hope that you will be able to help.   We are extremely fortunate in Harrogate and Knaresborough to have a local hospital which is nationally recognised as outstanding and which is staffed some of the most talented and committed doctors, nurses and health workers in the country.   It also enjoys enormous support from the community it has served so well.  

The current financial crisis has resulted in a bizarre situation where excellent care provided by the hospital now benefits patients from Leeds, Bradford and further afield but is denied to those living in Harrogate, Knaresborough and the surrounding area.   We need to persuade the government to relax the financial straitjacket that it has put on the PCT so that local residents can once again have access to the same health services as people outside North Yorkshire.

Campaigning for Constituents' Health Concerns