Gordon Birtwistle & Burnley Liberal Democrats

Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle has welcomed plans for £9m of funding for Burnley Urgent Care Centre but has expressed concern that the Labour party in Burnley and Pendle continue to act against the best interest of the town where the hospital is concerned.

Commenting, the Burnley MP said “the local Labour party have no right to comment on the hospital, as it was under their watch that such vital services were relocated to Blackburn.  Neither Kitty Usher nor Gordon Prentice raised any arguments with the Labour Government at the time to fight for the hospital services to remain in Burnley. I am surprised that Azhar Ali has so much to say about the A&E now, as when he was chairman of Burnley NHS trust he had very little to say on the reduction in services at our beloved hospital.

“I have fought tooth and nail for the hospital, I will continue to do so and I will not apologise for the dogged determination with which I campaign for local hospital services. It is the Labour party who need to apologise for letting our hospital services go and for doing nothing since to secure any improvements to local health care.

He added, “for me the issue is not about what the unit is called be it A&E, urgent care centre or something else. Instead the issue is about the amount, and quality of services on offer at the hospital.  With this investment Burnley will be able to treat far more people and discussions are taking place on the extent of services which will be available in the new centre. 

“In the past year we have seen the return of 50% of ambulances to Burnley. I am confident that with investment in the hospital and continued pressure on a local and national level, that we can see even more ambulances, and services, returning to Burnley General.

“I would like to commend the Trust for displaying such cost-effectiveness in a time of austerity by bidding for only £9m when the initial estimate was between £10-12m; this means that up to £3m is able to be spent elsewhere in the country to improve vital services. Dues also need to be paid to the government for securing this funding for the hospital in response to my campaigning on the issue. This is money which otherwise would not have been available from the trusts capital allowance for another five years.”

Comments are closed.