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 JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE NHS

 

 

Dear All,

 

I wanted you to know right away about plans announced by the hospital’s new management to re-open Pontefract A&E overnight from September.

 

This is a tribute to people power and the 15,000 people who signed the petition and backed our campaign for A&E. I wanted to thank you for your support.

 

But it is just a first step, and the campaign for Pontefract hospital must continue. 

 

Reopening A&E is a big u-turn for the hospital and it is only happening because they have been put under so much pressure. Remember six months ago, at the public meeting in Pontefract, the old management admitted they planned to close Pontefract A&E altogether later this year.  

 

Following the public outrage and campaigns, the Chair and Chief Executive have been replaced. Together we made clear to the new team that we would not back down in our campaign for PGI, and we are starting to see changes as a result.

 

The new management have announced that they are recruiting a team of GPs specially trained in A&E care to work with emergency medicine nursing staff, an on-site anaesthetist and answerable to consultants who will be available on call. They have told me this will provide the same level of care as the junior doctors who previously ran the service overnight. We must keep up the pressure now to make sure A&E reopens as fast as possible and provides the same level of care. 

 

But whilst this is welcome, it doesn’t yet go far enough. We can’t take our eye off the ball now. We also need the new Chair and Chief Executive to make good on the other promises that were broken by the old management team when the new hospital buildings opened.

 

That means bringing more services and patients back to Pontefract as we were promised. A new independent report has proved what we've been saying - Pontefract is being left empty while Pinderfields is struggling to cope.

 

We also need to keep up the campaign to stop local people being sent to Dewsbury - we were promised this two years ago, and it's time to put things right.

 

But I am also extremely worried about the future. The Coalition government's NHS reforms require Mid Yorkshire Health Trust to cut £50m next year alone to become a Foundation Trust and to pay for the national top down reorganisation of the NHS. That is crazy, and is simply undeliverable. 

 

I am worried that the Trust is being forced to draw up long term proposals to close far more services both at Pontefract and Pinderfields to meet the Coalition government plans. And if they don’t, they could be taken over or closed down.

 

So the re-opening of overnight A&E is just a start. Without your support, we would not have got the Trust to back down on A&E closure, but now we need your help to keep the pressure on to bring back other services and protect our NHS from future cuts and Coalition reforms. 

 

Remember you can still add your name to our petition by clicking on the link below and you can also sign up to my facebook page for regular updates here and you can fill in my NHS survey and sign up to help us deliver leaflets and get more people involved in the campaign here.

 

Best wishes,

 

Yvette Cooper MP

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