A vote against the Alex

When Mrs Lumley the Redditch MP voted yesterday to give the secretary of state the power to close hospitals within 40 days, she put her party before the needs of Redditch people.  Local people have been in touch with me already about this and many more of them will be appalled to wake up to this news. 

For the past couple of years A&E, maternity and the future of our hospital have been under threat to save money.  It has been a long hard slog to defend services and we are still fighting for consultant led births.  Yet Mrs Lumley has pulled the rug from under local people and local doctors having a real say in the future of the Alex. 

To vote to support hospital closures is unbelievable.  It should be as straightforward as ABC, at every opportunity the MP should fight for our local hospital and in choosing not to she has failed the people of this town. 

Let's not forget the reason we are here is because the government wanted to close Lewisham Hospital, a thriving hospital and the courts would not allow them.  And because the government couldn't close the hospital legally, it changed the law - they didn't like the rule book and so they have just re-written it.

The government have specifically said their new power will only be used if lives were at risk or a trust had failed financially.  Given that Worcestershire Acute Trust will be £12 million in debt this year, along with over 30 other Trusts across the country, the future of the Alex has been further undermined by the actions of the Conservative government and the MP for Redditch in yesterday's vote in Parliament.

Ultimately members of parliament can give as many verbal assurances as they like, we the voters will judge them by their actions.  And when the Redditch MP, Karen Lumley voted for the hospital closure clause it was a vote against the Alex. 

A Labour government would repeal this law.