Jamie Reed

Member of Parliament for Copeland

News Release

Maternity Services Non-Negotiable

Copeland MP Jamie Reed last night presented the recently compiled ‘Save our Maternity Services’ petition to the House of Commons. This petition arose as a consequence of the ongoing maternity services review at the West Cumberland Hospital which has led to fears that consultant services may be centralised in Carlisle.

Jamie Reed said: “Maternity services at the West Cumberland Hospital are non-negotiable, they always have been and they always will be. This petition contains over 10,000 signatures from members of the West Cumbrian public and represents the first petition to Parliament as part of the community’s Save Our Services campaign.

“The Government’s policy is to support birth choices for women and the women of West Cumbria have expressed their birth choice very clearly. They want a fully functioning obstetrician and gynaecologist led maternity unit at the West Cumberland Hospital and so do I.

“The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle is unquestionably too far to travel. An audit of emergency ambulance transfer times from Whitehaven to Carlisle hospital carried out by Cumbria Ambulance Service this year revealed an average blue light transfer time of 1 hour 42 minutes and 33 seconds from time of call to time of arrival in hospital bed. This would clearly be even longer for the people of Cleator Moor, Egremont, Seascale, Eskdale, Ravenglass and further south of Whitehaven. We are a special case and we require special solutions; what is right for London is not necessarily right for West Cumbria.

“A recently completed independent review was unable to recommend the introduction of a midwife led unit at the West Cumberland Hospital and now the most recent guidelines from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence has stated that there is no clinical evidence or basis to support the move away from consultant led maternity services.

“We demand and deserve not just the retention but the improvement of our maternity services. West Cumberland Hospital needs obstetricians and gynaecologists. It needs a fully functioning maternity unit. It is a non negotiable local health service and our voice must be heard.”

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The funding has been made available from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority following requests from Millom’s Labour MP Jamie Reed. He said:

“This investment is both unprecedented and essential for Millom and West Cumbria. I would like to publicly thank Sir Anthony Cleaver, Chairman, and Dr Ian Roxburgh, Chief Executive, of the NDA for their willingness to engage in negotiations and for providing this £18 million investment.

“This investment illustrates the commitment of the NDA to West Cumbria and of their understanding of their role in our community.

“This money will be used to help redesign the entire West Cumbrian health economy so that our local health services remain sustainable not only now, but in the long term.

“This investment does not mean that the status quo of the West Cumbrian health economy should be preserved- the modernisation and redesign of our health services is essential and this funding enables us to do this in a sustainable way.   With this in mind I expect this investment to safeguard the community hospitals in Millom, Keswick, Maryport, Cockermouth and elsewhere and also to provide the platform for West Cumbria’s new acute hospital. This new hospital will require a network of working community hospitals in order to provide the best possible levels of health care for us all.

“The outpouring of support for Millom’s hospital from amongst our community has been overwhelming. This support from ordinary members of the public underpinned negotiations and helped make this investment possible. The Friends of Millom Hospital, led by Eunice Vernon have been constant companions throughout this campaign and I am grateful to them. I now hope that this spirit of cooperation and involvement can be taken forward in helping to achieve the transformation of Millom, Copeland and West Cumbria.

This investment represents a radical and unique solution to some of the problems facing our community and we now have a platform to both build and capitalise upon the Government’s record investment in our local health services.”

Ian Roxburgh, chief executive of the NDA, said:

 “The NDA has a vital role to play in assisting West Cumbria to maintain a strong and sustainable community.  West Cumbria is now actively producing a new comprehensive strategic plan covering Copeland and Allerdale. An essential element in the emerging plan is the hoped for development of a new acute hospital to replace the existing West Cumberland Acute Hospital. The early plans for the new hospital envisage it integrating fully with the existing community hospitals to provide a joined up service. Clearly, if the community hospitals were to close during the two year or so planning period for the proposed new acute hospital, then this widely supported new model for providing care would be lost.  It is fundamental to our support that the request for gap funding is placed in this strategic context.

“The £18 million funding we have been asked to find over 3 years has been made possible by the savings that have been made by improved efficiency at our Cumbria sites.  We will be setting out our emerging thoughts on how the NDA can provide socio-economic support to the communities around all our sites in coming months.”

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For further information please call 01946 62024

Printed and promoted by Jamie Reed MP, Ingwell Hall,West Lakes Science Park, Moor Row.