Andrew Dismore

Dismore demands Barnet’s  Conservative MPs must ‘put constituency before party’ and vote against  the  Health Secretary’s scheme to exclude  local people form  decisions over  local  NHS hospital trusts in financial difficulty.

Clause 119 of the Care Bill would give Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt the power to close or downgrade services without local people having their say unless it is blocked in today’s crucial Commons vote.

The Lewisham Hospital  case shows no community in England is safe from being cut out of decisions to close or downgrade hospitals if Mr Hunt’s plans go through: the High Court ruled the closure illegal- but the health Secretary now wants the power to ignore  the court.

Andrew Dismore, Labour London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden and parliamentary candidate for Hendon said:

“The NHS trusts most at risk from the Health Secretary’s new “hospital closure clause” where NHS regulators have significant concerns over finances, include Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital. We are already seeing the plan for a takeover by the Royal Free after the downgrading of Chase Farm. Clause 119 risks placing such trusts at the centre of further area-wide reconfigurations that affect neighbouring hospitals.

If the Commons votes for the sweeping new powers today, Ministers will get the green light to impose downgrades on hospitals whilst local patients and clinicians would have little chance to object.

Today,  Labour will vote to delete the new rules from the Bill and will join forces with MPs of other parties to hand power back to local communities. I urge Barnet’s three Conservative  MPs to join the growing cross-party campaign against the Health Secretary’s power-grab.”

 

Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said:

“This Government used to say it wanted to put patients and doctors in charge of the local NHS. Now Jeremy Hunt wants to ride roughshod over local communities and have carte blanche to break up the NHS without anyone else having a say. He must be stopped.

“With more and more hospitals in financial difficulty, this move could hit every community in the land and leave them voiceless in the face of changes to their services.

“Labour is clear: changes to hospitals should be driven by clinical, not financial, reasons with local people involved every step of the way. That is why we believe these plans are dangerous and wrong. It is time for Parliament to stop an arrogant Secretary of State from overstepping the mark.”