What is happening to the NHS? - Helen Jones

Have you been consulted on it?

No, me neither. Yet this plan could result in major changes to services in Warrington. We could even lose some services completely.

It is all being done behind closed doors and little time will be allowed for public consultation.

We shouldn’t be fooled by the name because this plan is really about saving money and it’s being done because our NHS is in crisis.

Staff are working in a system which asks them to do more and more with less and less.

We’ve already seen some hospitals closing departments because there aren’t enough staff to keep them safe and ambulances queuing for hours outside emergency departments.

In Chorley, for example, my good mate Lindsay Hoyle has been fighting the closure of their A&E and the same thing is happening elsewhere.

Waiting times are going up and it’s difficult to recruit staff in some specialities.

The reasons for this are fairly simple.

The NHS is being starved of funds, junior doctors are leaving after a bruising battle with the secretary of state and we don’t have enough nurses because the Government first cut the number of nurse training places and then decided to take away their bursaries.

We have to recruit staff from abroad while the Government prevents young people here training for the job.

So we’re facing yet another reorganisation based on ‘finance and efficiency’ rather than local need.

We’re no longer a town needing local services but part of a ‘footprint area’, and decisions are made elsewhere.

Whatever happened to ‘no decision about me without me’?

The public and their MPs are not consulted about what is happening.

I have emailed and asked parliamentary questions but no information is forthcoming.

I doubt it will be good news when the plans are published and we may all have to fight to keep decent local services in our growing town.

As we saw with the relocation of vascular services, once NHS bureaucrats have made up their minds, it will be a hard fight.