ELLESMERE Port and Neston MP Andrew Miller led the way in a pledge to limit the damage of NHS reorganisation.
Mr Miller attended the launch of the five-point ‘NHS pledge’ and was the first MP to put his name to it.
The pledge calls on local health leaders to protect NHS founding values, prevent postcode lotteries, guard against longer waits, promote collaboration over competition and put patients before profits.
Mr Miller said: “I am honoured to be the first Member of Parliament to sign up and support the NHS Pledge in defence of our local health services and I ask that our local NHS leaders adopt the five principles to protect the NHS from the worst that this Government throws at it.
“Labour will not sit back and wait for things to go wrong in our NHS – it is far too important for that. By joining forces with health professionals at local level, we can resist the drive toward the rationing of treatment and the encroachment of charges we are starting to see in our NHS.
“The Tory-led Government’s NHS reorganisation is already causing real harm to patients and is wasting almost £16m in our area. Longer waits for operations and chaos in A&E has returned, operations and treatments are restricted as the postcode lottery gets worse and thousands of nursing jobs are axed.”
