Labour pledges to halt work on £350m hospital
LABOUR has said it will block the construction of a new £350 million Black Country hospital which has been planned for more than six years.
Midland Metropolitan Hospital in Smethwick is due to open in October 2018, providing emergency, maternity, children’s and inpatient adult services to half a million people in the Black Country and West Birmingham.
Work began last year and it will replace many services at City Hospital in Birmingham and Sandwell Hospital in West Bromwich, which both lose their A&E departments.
But Labour has said it will “immediately halt” the plan if it wins the General Election on June 8.
Labour Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said a Labour government would immediately stop what he called the Tories’ chaotic Sustainability and Transformation Plan programme. There are 44 plans across the country, and they are designed to save the NHS £22 billion in total.
The creation of the 650-bed stateof-the-art Midland Met hospital is a key part of the Black Country Sustainability and Transformation Plan, although proposals for a new hospital were drawn up long before the plan was published in November 2016.
A statement issued by Labour highlights changes to Black Country hospitals as one of the things it wants to halt. The Labour statement lists hospital closures the party would prevent, including: “Black Country – merger of two general hospitals to a single site Black Country.”
It goes on to highlight A&E units at risk, naming City Hospital and Sandwell District General Hospital – and states they will be “replaced by a unit at the new Midland Metropolitan Hospital in 2018”.
The statement says: “A future Labour Government will immedi- ately halt the proposed closure of A&Es in England and carry out a full scale review of all proposals. Having listened to campaigners and concerned patients up and down the country, Jonathan Ashworth, as Labour health secretary will immediately halt the Tories’ chaotic ‘Sustainability and Transformation Plan’ (STP) programme.”
Mr Ashworth said Labour would ask a new body – NHS Excellence – to lead a review into STPs, with patients and local communities ‘involved at every stage’.
The plan for a new hospital has been backed by Black Country health trusts and local councils.
Conservative MP James Morris, who represents Halesowen, said: “This is just another nonsensical Jeremy Corbyn idea – last December his Shadow Health Secretary backed these plans and Labour’s 2015 manifesto said they would do the same thing. These local plans are developed by local doctors and communities, backed by the top doctors and nurses of the NHS, and will improve patient care.”