Commenting on Labour’s protest outside Warrington Hospital on Saturday, Parliamentary
Candidate Andy Carter says it demonstrates an on-going weaponization of our Health Service by
Warrington’s Labour MPs who are blatantly misleading the public for political gain;
“I listened with surprise to the comments made by Faisal Rashid MP and Helen Jones MP in House of
Commons on Thursday that ‘Our hospital was demanding £18,000 before they carry out a hip operation,
they were simply repeating a story which appeared in a tabloid newspaper earlier in the day. A
story which wasn’t true, where the hospital had told the journalists it wasn’t true and where the
Labour politicians knew it wasn’t true”.
“The hospital doesn’t make decisions on who receives treatment, deciding who is treated by our NHS
is completely separate to the NHS Trust that provide our care. The pricing list they focused on
was launched in September 2018, has never been used, and is to give options for those who don’t
meet the criteria for treatment under NHS commissioning rules. Our MPs surely know how the NHS
works, if they don’t, they need to spend time researching before standing up and making claims.”
“What makes me even more angry is the blatant hypocrisy of Labour politicians, who stand on Lovely
Lane claiming to be the party of the NHS. This is the same party who were responsible for the
decisions which led to the first hospital being privatised in the UK.
“As far back as 2006, then Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced that poor performing Managers
would be replaced with private companies. In March 2010, when Andy Burnham was Health Secretary,
the Labour government shortlisted three private companies to take over Hichingbrooke Hospital in
Cambridgeshire with the contract later being awarded to a company called Circle. Mr Rashid seems
oblivious to the facts that it was the Conservative government who later returned this hospital to
NHS Management”.
“Last year the Prime Minister announced a £20.5 billion funding settlement and a ten-year plan for
the NHS, more doctors, more nurses and extra funding to ensure that we can deliver world-class
health care. I want to see our share of that additional funding for our NHS care services here in
Warrington, we need a bigger and better Hospital which is fit for the next 50 years. Rather than
spending time repeating false information he should be at the department for Health asking what
money can be allocated to our town”.
“Protesting outside a hospital also shows a complete lack of understanding for the people using the
hospital, the relatives of the sick and elderly and the staff who work there. Having recently
spent time there with a very sick relative, the last thing you want when leaving the
building is to be faced with a very noisy group of people waving placards”.
