Health Minister Dan Poulter MP reassures Morecambe and Lunesdale Constituents that the Royal Lancaster Infirmary is not at threat and scaremongering by the Labour Party is wrong and misplaced
In Morecambe and Lunesdale the Labour Party have been scaremongering for a number of months that the Royal Lancaster Infirmary will be losing services. The new campaign is that the Royal Lancaster Infirmary could be at threat of closure. This is untrue and David Morris MP spoke in the NHS Access to services debate yesterday to reassure his constituents.
Speaking in the sum up of the Debate Health Minister Dan Poulter MP said:
‘ I would like to reassure my hon friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (David Morris) that the hospital in his constituency is of course not going to close and that any local scaremongering by the Labour Party is wrong and misplaced’
Speaking in the Debate in the House of Commons yesterday David Morris MP said:
‘What upsets me [..] is that in my constituency the Labour Party is campaigning on the basis of an erroneous agenda of cuts, hospital closures and A and E closures that have never happened and are not going to happen.
I received an email today from a constituent who is absolutely terrified that the local Royal Lancaster Infirmary is going to close, but it is not. There is no suggestion of it closing. In fact I have spoken to the Chief Executive and she said “I don’t know where this has come from’
‘Morecambe and Lunesdale has never seen so much investment in the NHS *, yet the Labour Party in my area says that everything is going to hell in a handcart and the hospital is closing down, but that is wrong. The RLI is not going to close’
‘Campaigns saying that £25 million is being cut from the local trust when £150million is being invested in it , the maths do not stack up’
‘Scaremongering is not a way forward, because all it does is alienate the electorate, my constituents and the people we all live with across the nation and put fear into the services we are trying to protect’
‘I am facing the third erroneous campaign on health cuts in my constituency and my mail box is always full every time there is such a campaign. All it seeks to do is frighten the electorate, but it does not frighten me, because the electorate know the truth’
David Morris MP ended his speech by saying:
‘My hospital in Lancaster, in my neighbouring constituency, is not going to close. Like everyone else in the Chamber, I care about the NHS, but I appeal not just to the opposition, but to all political parties that have the honour to serve here and speak: let us all get a grip on reality, stop scaremongering and work towards making a better NHS’
Chloe Smith MP for Norwich North , who spoke after Mr Morris said:
‘I Pay tribute to my hon friend David Morris for his very honourable speech both in tone and content about the honesty with which we should aspire to treat the NHS’