None of the county’s local hospitals are safe from these cuts

THIS is no longer just a fight to save our cottage hospital, it is a fight to save the future of all our local hospitals and the very existence of our beloved NHS.

Well, well! At last after months of hiding behind other people, the leader of the Conservative majority party and the council of Hinckley and Bosworth, has finally said in public, what he has been secretly saying in private, for months.

I am referring to the article (Hinckley Times, September 14) where Mike Hall, leader of the council has shown his true colours and pinned them firmly to the flag of the West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group. This is an insult to the 11,670 people who have signed against this closure, as well as the Save our Hinckley Cottage Hospital-Action Group, who have been out on the streets, in all weathers, telling people about the reasons and background to the closure. However, the greatest insult is to the forefathers of Hinckley, who funded and paid for the building, upkeep and daily running expenses, of this hospital, out of their meagre wages.

Speaking of which, I, and a huge number of our elderly citizens, have paid our National Insurance stamp, over the years, for the upkeep of our NHS. What has happened to all our contributions? One explanation is that they have gone to pay 1million pounds, per annum in wages for the top 69 senior management posts, including Jeremy Hunt and Simon Stevens. What do we need all these pen-pushers for?

When the NHS was born in 1948, it promised free healthcare to every man, woman and child in this country, from the point of access. Then the politicians and businessmen/women poked their greedy noses in and what started off as a service, quickly became a business.

In May 2014, the new leader of NHS England, Simon Stevens, said in his first interview: “we must stop closing our cottage hospitals and put an end to the centralising of services”. Then somewhere along this timeline, Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron’s government got their heads together and completely overturned this decision. (You will find the answer to this in an article printed in the Financial Times, January 6th 2014, paragraph 3 and 10. This is about the setting up of NHS Property Services, by our Health Secretary and the Cameron Government.)

The results are plain to see. First they closed Ashby-de-laZouch hospital, after a so-called consultation where only 300 people bothered to answer, next they have started on Hinckley, where the long awaited consultation will be coming out in December, (the busiest time of the year, where everyday matters can get side-lined, in preference to present buying and food preparation). We believe that the next one in the sights of the CCG will be Coalville Community Hospital, as part of this has already been closed. Where will this end? We have got to stand up and protect our local hospitals and this is not a fight anymore, for only these, but it is becoming increasingly, a fight to save our precious NHS as a whole.

If Jeremy Hunt and our government get their way, we will be looking at having to insure ourselves for private health care. He wants to bring in the American system of KAISER PERMENTE. This system let an 18-month-old little girl die, because she was in the wrong place at the time she took suddenly ill, even though her mother was fully insured and up to date! Is this what we want for our children and grandchildren? I know that I do not!

Our promise to the people of Hinckley and Bosworth is that we will continue to fight this closure, for the elderly, who find travel an upheaval and expense, parents with young families, who have to catch two buses just to visit a loved one or to attend a routine appointment, the mentally and physically challenged, who need their care easily accessible and local, for the financially embarrassed, who cannot afford bus or taxi fares and for all the people who have signed, in their thousands, against this closure. We will continue to go out into the surrounding villages with this petition. We will put out information leaflets on the run up to the consultation. We will not give up until we have in place everything that the people of Hinckley and Bosworth deserve, to secure their future healthcare. Lynda Gibbs Chair, Save our Hinckley Cottage Hospital Action Group