Threat to A&E and trying to pass the buck

• LIKE many others, I have been very concerned to hear about plans to close the accident and emergency unit at the Whittington Hospital. 
Speaking to hundreds of local residents it’s clear that this proposal has no local support.
So I was glad to see that there was a debate in the House of Commons. It was an opportunity for the government to set the record straight, to make it clear that the A&E unit will be supported and that the 80,000 people who use the Whittington A&E every year will still be able to have the emergency service they are entitled to expect.
The response from the minister responsible did nothing to reassure us. He said: “My Right Hon and Hon Friends have expressed very clearly their views about these matters and the importance to local people of the Whittington hospital, including its A&E department, and I am sure that those on the PCT will have heard those words very forcibly indeed.”
It is a failure of leadership for the Labour minister to try to pass the buck to the primary care trust in this way. We know to our cost here in Camden after the debacle over consultation on polyclinics, GP-led health centres and the like, the unelected, unaccountable and undemocratic PCT obeys the Department of Health. It pays little attention to the wishes of local people.
Sign the petition to save Whittington A&E.
JO SHAW
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Campaigner
Holborn & St Pancras