Put your money where your mouth is Brown!

9.31.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 25th Jun 2007

Serena with Norman Lamb, Lib Dem Shadow Health Secretary and the letter to Gordon Brown

Serena Tierney, leading Lib Dem health campaigner in neighbouring Mid-Sussex has written to Gordon Brown asking him to make good on his pledges as he becomes Prime Minister over their local hospital, The Princess Royal (PRH) at Haywards Heath, especially as this will mean no A&E Hospital will be left in West Sussex.

Serena says "We have to use all means possible to fight these plans. I have written to Gordon Brown asking him to put his money where his mouth is on the PRH."

Referring indirectly to Crawley's hospital Serena said "If Gordon Brown really wants to be a listening Prime Minister and put the NHS first then he should immediately call a halt to this downgrading. It makes no sense to destroy good local services at 2 Sussex hospitals to prop up an inaccessible hospital in Brighton that can't cope with its current workload, has an appalling MRSA rate. That is not putting patients first."

"We have to fight these plans on every front. I hope that people will join us at the demonstration to hand in the petition in London on Wednesday. And I urge everyone to take part in the consultation when it is launched tomorrow."

NOTES:

1. Text of letter

Dear Gordon Brown,

In your leadership acceptance speech on 17th May, you said: "By listening and learning, I want to become …a voice for the parent, the patient and the public, whom public services must exist to serve...And when people ask me what I will focus on as prime minister… My immediate priority is the NHS."

I invite you to show that you mean what you say by reversing the disastrous Whitehall policies that threaten the A&E and maternity units at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and many other equally-valued services across Sussex.

Yours sincerely,

Serena Tierney