We have to go to press before the march in Whitehaven to Save Our Services takes place. We wish to assure our readers that of course we support demands that health services in this area meet the needs of our people, and most specifically we support the statement clearly made by Marie Burnham that no one should have to travel for more than half an hour to reach emergency services. That must, of course, include expectant mothers, as we made clear in our article in November's edition reviewing the Lay Report on Obstetric and Midwifery Services. We thus unite with our MP, Jamie Reed, Copeland Council Leader, Elaine Woodburn and local councillors of all political parties, with doctors and nurses and with all potential health service users who wish to make sure that in an emergency their families will be given the best possible chances of recovery. We strongly support Jamie Reed in insisting that a new acute hospital, ideally with teaching facilities, should be situated in Copeland.

At the same time we believe that it takes much more than marches to preserve our services. It should be perfectly possible to join the march while paying tribute to the patient work by Marie Burnham and the managers of the North Cumbria Acute Health Trust in helping our hospitals to match the best in the country in the care they provide for patients coming into Accident and Emergency. They have already addressed huge problems caused partly by neglect over many years and partly by the fact that we do live in the most isolated district in England. A commitment to an acute hospital serving a population of fewer than 130,000 is an achievement probably unmatched anywhere else in England.
We should also understand that if a private hospital for elective surgery is built in Workington this could be a threat to our acute hospital services. Capture Access Treat & Support Centres (CATS) certainly bring benefits to patients in reducing the time they have to wait for operations like hip replacements, but in areas like West Cumbria they can threaten the survival of the emergency services provided by NHS hospitals.