Labour leader defends hypocritical charges over NHS closures in her constituency
Cabinet minister Hazel Blears has defended her decision to take part in a protest over plans to close part of a hospital in her constituency. The proposals for Hope Hospital in Salford, Greater Manchester, are part of the controversial NHS shake up throughout the country.
Ms Blears, Labour chairwoman, said: "My first and foremost job is to represent Salford and the people of the area." It is very rare for a minister to directly oppose labour government policy.
However, Ms Blears said her actions were "the bread and butter of every MP's political life," and would not cause embarrassment to the government.
"This is a normal consultation, it has been going on now for two years and quite right and proper, I am a constituency member of Parliament and I have been putting forward the views of the people of Eccles and Salford.''
Ms Blears took part in the demonstration before Christmas outside the hospital over proposals to close and relocate its maternity unit.
Health chiefs want to concentrate maternity services in the region in three centres providing high-quality intensive care for babies.
However Geoff Martin of Health Emergency said "If the closure of maternity services is wrong in Salford, it is wrong in all those other parts of the country as well and Blears should be piling on pressure to ditch the cuts policy or she should resign."
Ms Blears denied she was panicking about whether or not she would be re-selected as an MP when boundary changes come into force.
The final decision on moving the unit is not due for several months, but her spokesman confirmed that Ms Blears had privately lobbied Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt about the closure.
Ms Blears' spokesman told the BBC that she has had "informal contact" with the health secretary over the issue and plans to make formal representations.
Campaign group Health Emergency accused Ms Blears of being hypocritical by opposing local closures while supporting central government policy.
Her efforts follow Home Secretary John Reid's presence at protests against hospital cuts in his Airdrie and Shotts constituency in April.
Health Emergency's head of campaigns, Geoff Martin, said Cabinet ministers were only supporting local protests "in a bid to save their own political skins. There are 29 hospitals up and down the country facing the immediate threat of cuts and closure to key services in 2007.
In or out?
"Will Hazel Blears be joining demonstrators on the streets in each of those areas or is this just a classic case of 'not in my back yard'?
His view was echoed by Ms Blears' Conservative counterpart Andrew Lansley, who said she needed to consider whose side she was on.
"It is a government policy to say that units must be much larger.
"So if Hazel Blears doesn't like what happens as a consequence of government policy in her constituency, then perhaps she should change the government policy - or get out of the labour government."
On Sept 15, 06 Health Diirect revealed that Blears had had a private meeting with Patricia Hewitt about reducing the number of NHS closures in Labour voting constituencies in Labour accused over hospital cuts in marginal constituencies with the claim that Labour may be trying to target hospital cutbacks in areas where rival parties have seats. The Tories have seen leaked emails detailing meetings between ministers and Labour party officials. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said there also seemed to be a deliberate attempt to cut fewer services in Labour constituencies.
The claims follow news an Accident and Emergency unit in a key marginal constituency is to be axed in favour of an "urgent care centre" dealing with less serious casualties. The provisional decision to scrap Rochdale Infirmary's A&E unit was taken by a joint committee of Primary Care Trusts in the area.
Rochdale Labour Party has been hoping to oust Liberal Democrat MP Paul Rowen at the next election. He snatched the seat from Labour in 2005 with a majority of only 442 votes.
Further more: the sight of Hazel Blears standing on a picket line outside a Salford hospital seemed a traditional scene from the last days of a Labour government. From 1929 to 1974, radical politicians would come to power determined to make the lives of the majority a little bit better.
Invariably, there would be a run on the pound and a crisis of confidence and, far from strengthening the welfare state, Labour Prime Ministers would order huge reductions in public spending, as Ramsay MacDonald did in 1931, or a cut in the free treatments offered by the NHS, as Clement Attlee did in 1951, or the imposition of an austerity package drawn up by the International Monetary Fund, as James Callaghan did in 1976.
After all these crises, you saw the same sad spectacle we saw this Christmas: Labour MPs protesting against what their own government was doing to their constituents.
Except that this time we have a Labour government like no other. The pound is strong. Capital is flowing into Britain. Far from presiding over the slashing of benefits and public expenditure, the 1997 Labour government has poured money into the public services. For all that, Ms Blears is still reliving her left-wing youth by protesting against 'the cuts' on picket lines and only holding herself back from a chant of 'Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, out, out, out!' by the thought that Maggie has been out and Tony has been in for some time now.
Because the troubles of the public sector come after a Labour government that has been an economic success, they are far more serious than the failures of the 20th century. If you are over 30 and on the left, think back to your youth. In the early Nineties, you would have said the answer to the problems of the NHS was more money and ought now to be thankful that Labour has done what you wanted and delivered it.
I suspect you are not brimming over with gratitude because wards are being closed and all but the most purblind defenders of the public sector are admitting that vast increases in spending have failed to bring commensurate improvements in services. This time around, no one can blame the City or foreign exchange dealers for the frustration of Labour's plans. The guilty parties are less comfortable culprits.
For instance, it feels almost blasphemous to criticise doctors. With the decline of religion, they have replaced the clergy as confessors and comforters. The media still treat them as the protectors of the NHS's soul, even though the money they are sucking out of the service has put at risk the future of health care free at the point of delivery. British GPs are now the best paid in Europe. Their average annual income is £106,000, while a few are making £250,000.
New Labour deserves a lot of the blame, of course. It has failed to manage medical wage inflation, even though it has created a NHS that has more managers than medical consultants, then added legions of management consultants to advise the managers.
The waste of public money brought by management consultants running riot in the public sector has been documented many times. David Craig, a consultant turned whistleblower, estimates in Plundering the Public Sector that £70bn has gone down the drain. What isn't usually pointed out is that the supplanting of the old Civil Service by McKinsey, Accenture and all the other experts in clocking up billable hours didn't initially appear as great a capitulation to corporate snake-oil salesmen as it now seems.
They can now sigh and murmur that they understand perfectly why voters once believed that putting more money into public services was a good idea, but - let's face facts - Labour tried it, it proved a terrible waste and it didn't work.
The full stories can be found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6213445.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1980593,00.html
Health Direct wishes all of our readers a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy New Year!
Ms Blears, Labour chairwoman, said: "My first and foremost job is to represent Salford and the people of the area." It is very rare for a minister to directly oppose labour government policy.
However, Ms Blears said her actions were "the bread and butter of every MP's political life," and would not cause embarrassment to the government.
"This is a normal consultation, it has been going on now for two years and quite right and proper, I am a constituency member of Parliament and I have been putting forward the views of the people of Eccles and Salford.''
Ms Blears took part in the demonstration before Christmas outside the hospital over proposals to close and relocate its maternity unit.
Health chiefs want to concentrate maternity services in the region in three centres providing high-quality intensive care for babies.
However Geoff Martin of Health Emergency said "If the closure of maternity services is wrong in Salford, it is wrong in all those other parts of the country as well and Blears should be piling on pressure to ditch the cuts policy or she should resign."
Ms Blears denied she was panicking about whether or not she would be re-selected as an MP when boundary changes come into force.
The final decision on moving the unit is not due for several months, but her spokesman confirmed that Ms Blears had privately lobbied Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt about the closure.
Ms Blears' spokesman told the BBC that she has had "informal contact" with the health secretary over the issue and plans to make formal representations.
Campaign group Health Emergency accused Ms Blears of being hypocritical by opposing local closures while supporting central government policy.
Her efforts follow Home Secretary John Reid's presence at protests against hospital cuts in his Airdrie and Shotts constituency in April.
Health Emergency's head of campaigns, Geoff Martin, said Cabinet ministers were only supporting local protests "in a bid to save their own political skins. There are 29 hospitals up and down the country facing the immediate threat of cuts and closure to key services in 2007.
In or out?
"Will Hazel Blears be joining demonstrators on the streets in each of those areas or is this just a classic case of 'not in my back yard'?
His view was echoed by Ms Blears' Conservative counterpart Andrew Lansley, who said she needed to consider whose side she was on.
"It is a government policy to say that units must be much larger.
"So if Hazel Blears doesn't like what happens as a consequence of government policy in her constituency, then perhaps she should change the government policy - or get out of the labour government."
On Sept 15, 06 Health Diirect revealed that Blears had had a private meeting with Patricia Hewitt about reducing the number of NHS closures in Labour voting constituencies in Labour accused over hospital cuts in marginal constituencies with the claim that Labour may be trying to target hospital cutbacks in areas where rival parties have seats. The Tories have seen leaked emails detailing meetings between ministers and Labour party officials. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said there also seemed to be a deliberate attempt to cut fewer services in Labour constituencies.
The claims follow news an Accident and Emergency unit in a key marginal constituency is to be axed in favour of an "urgent care centre" dealing with less serious casualties. The provisional decision to scrap Rochdale Infirmary's A&E unit was taken by a joint committee of Primary Care Trusts in the area.
Rochdale Labour Party has been hoping to oust Liberal Democrat MP Paul Rowen at the next election. He snatched the seat from Labour in 2005 with a majority of only 442 votes.
Further more: the sight of Hazel Blears standing on a picket line outside a Salford hospital seemed a traditional scene from the last days of a Labour government. From 1929 to 1974, radical politicians would come to power determined to make the lives of the majority a little bit better.
Invariably, there would be a run on the pound and a crisis of confidence and, far from strengthening the welfare state, Labour Prime Ministers would order huge reductions in public spending, as Ramsay MacDonald did in 1931, or a cut in the free treatments offered by the NHS, as Clement Attlee did in 1951, or the imposition of an austerity package drawn up by the International Monetary Fund, as James Callaghan did in 1976.
After all these crises, you saw the same sad spectacle we saw this Christmas: Labour MPs protesting against what their own government was doing to their constituents.
Except that this time we have a Labour government like no other. The pound is strong. Capital is flowing into Britain. Far from presiding over the slashing of benefits and public expenditure, the 1997 Labour government has poured money into the public services. For all that, Ms Blears is still reliving her left-wing youth by protesting against 'the cuts' on picket lines and only holding herself back from a chant of 'Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, out, out, out!' by the thought that Maggie has been out and Tony has been in for some time now.
Because the troubles of the public sector come after a Labour government that has been an economic success, they are far more serious than the failures of the 20th century. If you are over 30 and on the left, think back to your youth. In the early Nineties, you would have said the answer to the problems of the NHS was more money and ought now to be thankful that Labour has done what you wanted and delivered it.
I suspect you are not brimming over with gratitude because wards are being closed and all but the most purblind defenders of the public sector are admitting that vast increases in spending have failed to bring commensurate improvements in services. This time around, no one can blame the City or foreign exchange dealers for the frustration of Labour's plans. The guilty parties are less comfortable culprits.
For instance, it feels almost blasphemous to criticise doctors. With the decline of religion, they have replaced the clergy as confessors and comforters. The media still treat them as the protectors of the NHS's soul, even though the money they are sucking out of the service has put at risk the future of health care free at the point of delivery. British GPs are now the best paid in Europe. Their average annual income is £106,000, while a few are making £250,000.
New Labour deserves a lot of the blame, of course. It has failed to manage medical wage inflation, even though it has created a NHS that has more managers than medical consultants, then added legions of management consultants to advise the managers.
The waste of public money brought by management consultants running riot in the public sector has been documented many times. David Craig, a consultant turned whistleblower, estimates in Plundering the Public Sector that £70bn has gone down the drain. What isn't usually pointed out is that the supplanting of the old Civil Service by McKinsey, Accenture and all the other experts in clocking up billable hours didn't initially appear as great a capitulation to corporate snake-oil salesmen as it now seems.
They can now sigh and murmur that they understand perfectly why voters once believed that putting more money into public services was a good idea, but - let's face facts - Labour tried it, it proved a terrible waste and it didn't work.
The full stories can be found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6213445.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1980593,00.html
Health Direct wishes all of our readers a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy New Year!
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