Doctor stands for NHS services

Dr Robert 'Bob' Hodges- is standing as an independent Parliamentary candidate in the Cheltenham constituency at the General Election as he is fighting the closure of NHS services.

MY INDEPENDENT MANIFESTO- he believes that:

• The party political system in this country has failed to provide honest, accountable government.
• Government should be made smaller, with public services run by experts and professionals, who are free from interference by party politicians.
  
• MPs should hold the interests of their constituents above their own political careers, and vote in the House of Commons according to their wishes.
  
• At present only Independent MPs can truly represent their constituency because they are not beholden to a party machine or a party whip.
  
• One size DOES NOT fit all. Local priorities are ignored by centralised policy.
  

My aim as your Independent MP would be to introduce a system to give to you, as my constituents, the means to control the way I vote in the House of Commons. I would like to see a real democracy in action in Cheltenham. In the absence of your directive I would be happy to express my own personal views and opinions:

On Health:

As a doctor I believe that I am more able to represent your interests on health, than the candidates. I propose that the NHS be granted independence from party politics in a similar way to the Bank of England. Neither of the previous two Secretaries of State for Health have EVER had a job outside of the Labour party, yet they have dictated to our highly trained and committed health professionals on issues on which they have no personal understanding. I believe in the principles on which the NHS was set up, and that if managed properly, by real health professionals, the system is actually more likely to work than an insurance-based system.

The fight to save Battledown ward is necessary because the wishes of local people, the people who pay for the service, are callously disregarded. Our petitions have been thrown away as soon as our backs are turned, our consultants and governors simply ignored. This situation must change, or we will all pay the price.

One of the areas in which governments have failed most significantly is in the training of sufficient numbers of healthcare professionals. We do not have enough doctors, nurses and clinical scientists. Because these people take longer to train than a parliamentary term of four years, this has not been a priority. Consequently we are forced to rely on professionals from other, often poorer countries, without whom the NHS would cease to function. With a NATIONAL Health Service, we should be able to plan for ten or twenty years in the future, but that doesn't win votes. Our inability to train enough people to look after us is a national disgrace.

Our protests have been dismissed as "too emotional" our facts "wrong", but our concerns are real and remain unanswered:

• How would patients get to Gloucester when the M5 or A40 are shut?
• What would happen to a baby who's birth goes wrong at the last minute?
• What would happen if there was another epidemic on the County's only Childrens' ward? Where would our children be sent?
• How do people from Cheltenham without cars visit their children in hospital in Gloucester?
• Is replacing 90 beds with 44 beds giving us the level of cover that we need?

The campaign is available online at Battledown. org

We wish him success.