Tim launches a campaign to Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals - KWASH
Worthing MPs Tim Loughton and Peter Bottomley have launched a 'Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals' website at: www.kwash.org.uk to act as a focal point in the campaign against the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority's attack on local NHS services.
The Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority are in serious financial trouble. The government have said they must deliver savings of around £100 million from the annual NHS budget for the area and that means spending less money on hospital services. They have fixed their sights on Worthing Hospital and it seems likely that they will propose cuts to services like accident and emergency perhaps sooner rather than later.
The MPs are urging as many people as possible to log on to www.kwash.org.uk and sign the online petition to help give them the ammunition they need to fight the cuts.
East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton said: 'If we can get a huge number of people to sign up in opposition to the plans then we stand a chance of influencing. I am convinced that the authorities have Worthing fixed firmly in their sights for cuts and we must oppose them with mass and overwhelming opposition.
'The strategic health authority have said they want to listen to local people and take their views into account. We need to give them massive opposition and hope that chief executive Candy Morris is as good as her word."
The first deadline the strategic health authority have set for people to register their views as part of the 'Fit for the Future' reorganisation plans is 21 July and the MPs need as many people as possible to sign up in opposition before then.
