MASSIVE DOWNGRADE OF BEDFORD HOSPITAL PLANNED: These are the mayor words, please sign the petition below: This is of course the very concerning news. I have opposed NHS Commissioners current review of local hospital services since it was launched last year. This is because the intention to impose a severe downgrading of Bedford Hospital has been clear throughout. However, even I did not imagine that the options taken forward would be so grave for our hospitals future as those which are being pursued. We are facing proposals for the end of Bedford Hospital as we know it. The options which have been shortlisted make a severe downgrade of hospital services almost inevitable, and include the proposal for Bedford Hospital to become a daytime GP-led centre with no beds on site. Bedford Hospital serves a growing population, and is highly rated by the healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission at both a regional and a national level. Yet £5.4 million has now been spent on reviews seeking to downgrade our hospital. That is money that could and should have been invested in front line services. Instead, the commissioners are pursuing plans which will force local patients to travel to access vital emergency services, at lower-rated hospitals. The plans will simply shunt costs from the NHS onto patients and their families, as well as causing extra strain at the worst possible times. But all is not yet lost. The commissioners proposals are due to be published shortly, with public consultation to follow in the autumn. Working together we, as local residents, patients and campaigners have an opportunity to send out one clear, united message as a community that we will not let them do this to our hospital. We have defeated attempts to downgrade Bedford Hospital before, and we must do so again. Please sign the Save Bedford Hospital petition at savebedfordhospital.org.uk . If you have already done so, perhaps friends or family members have not. The more people who join this crucial fight, the better chance we have of winning it. The alternative is simply unacceptable. This is too important a battle to lose.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:52:24 +0000
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