“If there wasn’t a chance, we wouldn’t fight that hard”: Protesters rally against closures at Trafford General Hospital
Article published: Monday, July 9th 2012
Hundreds of protestors took to the streets against cuts at Trafford General Hospital on Saturday. Around 300 people attended to demonstrate against planned closures of the A&E and ICU unit. The cuts will also affect the remaining children’s services and end acute surgery.
Photograph: Matt Finnegan
A year ago local residents learned about possible plans to privatise Trafford hospital due to unviable debts. The takeover by a private company was avoided when two NHS groups put forward bids to run the service, but Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust was acquired by Central Manchester Foundation Trust with the promise that key services would stay local.
Campaigner Matt Finnegan said, “I got involved because the hospital was about to get privatised. This posed a real threat to the birthplace of the NHS. We managed to fight off that threat last year.”
Trafford is seen as the historic birthplace of NHS where health secretary Nye Bevan inaugurated Britain’s first hospital in 1948.
In the Trust’s report, it reads that Trafford General “is costing the local health system £19 million more than it has available.” The Trust states that closing the A&E unit and downgrading services would make up for the deficit.
Finnegan said, “I’m a local resident, I believe in the NHS and that residents in Trafford deserve first class services.”
If all goes ahead as planned by the Trust, Trafford residents will have to embark on a 75-minute bus journey to Wythenshawe Hospital or the Royal Infirmary in the future.
The Trust will formally announce the closures soon. Public consultation meetings will be held from mid-July onward and the campaigners encourage everyone to turn up at all the meetings and make their voice heard.
A woman helping out with the campaign labeled the closures “a short-sighted decision. Wythenshawe and Manchester hospital can’t cope with so many new patients. A quarter of a million people live here – not to have a hospital with A&E is mad.”
Photograph: Matt Finnegan
Finnegan added that Trafford residents are supposed to go to Wythenshawe hospital which is already above capacity. He argued, “They want to build an extension at Wyhthenshawe which is economic madness.”
Only last year £1 million went into the renewal of Trafford General’s ICU unit which is now under threat of closure.
Jo Harding, a Labour councillor for Urmston, said, “The fight starts here. We’re not settling for any downgrading.” The campaigner demand that the A&E department, including the hospital’s intensive care unit, remain open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, providing a full range of emergency services to the people of Trafford.
She said, “When you lose A&E, you lose all the other vital services such as acute surgery.”
At the end of the rally, demonstrators showed hundreds of red cards to the Trust as a warning. Campaigners and residents demand a referendum on the future of A&E and so far, more than 7,000 have signed a petition.
For the campaigners, the march showed a great deal of public support for their campaign. Jo Harding said, “The turnout was absolutely fantastic. It was so powerful to walk across the grounds of Trafford General and receive support and cheers from the staff.”
Kathrin Ohlmann
Comments
No comments found
The comments are closed.
