A PROSPECTIVE parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party in Cannock Chase has teamed up with the leader of the district council to fight plans he feels are aimed at privatising Cannock Hospital.
Janos Toth and George Adamson teamed up to launch a petition to save Cannock Hospital following healthcare regulator Monitor’s proposals appoint a trust special administrator and radically reconfigure services in the area.
Mr Toth, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Cannock Chase said: “Cannock Hospital is the jewel in the crown of National Health Service provision in Cannock Chase.
“I absolutely believe that we need to keep our hospital within the NHS and the Government should fully fund the hospital,” he said. “People in Cannock Chase pay their taxes and national insurance in the same way as anywhere else in the country and should not have to accept second class NHS provision.
“Unfortunately, with this Conservative led Government’s NHS policy, it seems that they want to fragment and privatise the NHS.
“Millions of pounds have already been wasted on a top down reorganisation and now the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority has said that expenditure on the NHS in real terms was lower in 2011-12 than it was in 2009-10.
“This mis-match between Tory promises and the reality on the ground cannot be allowed to continue,” he said. “Cannock Hospital should be saved and be part of the NHS and I ask people to sign the petition”.
Leader of Cannock Chase Council George Adamson said the local Labour party was launching the petition because they felt the hospital was at risk of being on of the first ‘victims of Tory privatisation plans’ for the NHS.
“We want our hospital to stay open as a hospital, not an office block,” said Councillor Adamson. “It is vital that Cannock Hospital stays as part of the NHS."
