QUIETLY, the Government is trying to rush through a law making it much easier to close our hospitals and there is very little time to act .

Trafford General Hospital has already lost its A@E . Clause 118, the hospital closure, part of the Care Bill , which has already been through the House of Lords, would allow ANY hospital to be closed down.

Our MPs must ensure this draconian clause does not become law.

Currently the law allows such undemocratic and fast-track closures to happen at hospitals that are in serious financial or clinical difficulties and they can be taken into administration.

But the hospital closure clause would change the law. It will allow fasttrack closures – or privatisations – to happen to any hospital, however high quality, popular and solvent, if it has a struggling hospital nearby.

Given the cuts in the NHS, there are few hospital that aren’t struggling.

In the case of Jeremy Hunt’s plan to close Lewisham Hospital, the courts found he has broken the law when he tried to fast track the closure of services and redirect patients to a different hospital with bigger debts – so now this Government is trying to change the law If they succeed, no hospital will be safe.

Cllr David Acton, leader of the Labour group in Trafford, says he is extremely worried about this Bill.

The Trafford Labour group opposed the closure of the A&E dept. at Trafford General but our objections were ignored by the Government.

Now they want to make it easier to close our local hospitals.

We will rigorously oppose this and appeal to our MPs to do likewise I would hope that every MP would be concerned that this Care Bill is being used to drastically reduce our rights. We own the NHS, we should have a say in decisions about local provision.

What happened to Cameron’s promise that there would be no top down reorganisation of the NHS?

Please write to your MP about this before it’s too late.

Cllr Jane Baugh Shadow spokesperson, Health and Wellbeing Trafford Council