THE threat to Wythenshawe Hospital of being downgraded under the Healthier Together proposals is such an important issue.

Although the consultation process ended on Tuesday, with a question and answer session at Christie Hospital, questionnaires will continue to be accepted for a further three weeks.

Not many people from south Manchester have completed questionnaires as I think there has not been enough publicity about this issue and all the implications.

I believe it’s important that Wythenshawe Hospital is chosen to be one of five specialist hospitals [in Greater Manchester] for many reasons:

1) It is already a specialist in various fields including cardiology, thoracic, transplants, burns and plastic surgery.

2) It is in process of spending £12 million upgrading it’s A&E department including adding two new resuscitation bays.

3) It is the only hospital in Greater Manchester to have a helipad so patients can be transferred by trolley straight from the air ambulance into A&E. At all other hospitals these patients would have to be transferred to a land ambulance then to A&E, wasting vital time. It is unacceptable for Greater Manchester residents to be denied this vital part of emergency care.

4) There is unused land around Wythenshawe hospital so any future expansion here could be easily accommodated.

The questionnaire can be completed online and there is a freephone number too – 0800 888 6789 – so those people without access to a computer can phone to ask for a copy through the post.

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