Last stand bid to save heart unit

9:30am Friday 4th July 2008

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WESTMORLAND and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron is writing to 28,000 people, urging them to bombard councillors with objections to a move which will finally end the heart unit at Westmorland General Hospital next month. On July 29, bosses from the Kendal hospital will inform health watchdogs from Cumbria County Council that they are ready to conclude a controversial review of acute services by closing Ward 8 - a key medical ward with 27 beds - and the treasured Coronary Care Unit. Those behind the cuts plan to shut the two units during August, and send South Lakeland’s heart and stroke patients, or the acutely ill, to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary or Furness General Hospital, Barrow. The NHS SOS – Save our Services group in South Lakeland - claims that the infrastructure is still not in place to support the loss of more beds at WGH and fears lives will be put at risk by increased journey times for patients needing emergency care. But the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust chief executive, Tony Halsall, insists that closing the units is in the interest of clinical safety. Hiowever, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron has begun writing to each and every one of the 28,000 people who originally petitioned against the closures, alerting them of a "final call to arms". After leafleting members of the public in Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale this week, Mr Farron said this was potentially the end game. There was no longer any point signing petitions, he want everyone to write to the members of Cumbria County Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee to call for a halt to the propcess. The trust and OSC will meet at the Quaker Tapestry Exhibition Centre, Stramongate, Kendal on July 29 at 2pm. The meeting will be open to the public. For the names and addresses of the OSC members, visit thewestmorlandgazette. co.uk/news/campaigns1/ on this site.

For story in full, see the July 4 Westmorland Gazette.