‘Join in, it’s your future and your Leek’

THE public attendance at the recent Town Council meeting, where the future of our local hospital was debated, was a testament to the potential for instigating discussion, involvement and change in the local community.

Council meetings are open to the public, allowing the community to become involved in the process, and observe their representative in action (or inaction). The bed closures, (that were promised as temporary) and under usage of Leek Moorlands hospital have been disastrous. With the process of consultation managed by the Clinical Commissioning Group is delayed yet again.

The community elects its councillors, voting for what they believe to be the principles of those elected. Those who attended the meeting about the hospital saw first hand the lack of cohesive answers from the majority of the council, questioned eloquently by the councillors actively involved in the quest to retain and develop the hospital for the elderly, and those needing treatment, close to where they live rather than at the overstretched city hospitals currently unable to cope with the numbers if services.

It was clear that many of those attending did not trust the promises made by some councillors.

Despite claims that everyone was on the same side, Conservative councillors belong to a party that is committed to an ideology of neoliberalism, with its implications for the shrinkage of the welfare state.

This requires the privitisation of the NHS.

Across the county, private companies are winning 70 per cent of NHS contracts with Richard Branson winning £1bn alone. Virgin Care now has over 400 independent contracts.

One political agenda is apparent in the councillors in overall control and that appears to the dismantling of the NHS to move care into private sector, while the councillors in the minority sitting on the council fight to retain the rights and entitlements of the community in relation to their elderly, their children and those needing care.

Observe carefully what your councillors stand for and what their actions are. Join in .... it’s your future and your Leek. Lyn Swindlehurst Retired nurse/nurse educator Leek