Chippenham’s Liberal Democrat MP recently voted in favour of the controversial clause 119 – which means the Secretary of State for Health has the power to push through changes to hospitals and local services without adequate public consultation and on the grounds of finance over clinical need.

I just sent him the following letter

Dear Duncan Hames MP,
This week, you voted during the Commons debate on the Care Bill on clause 119, the Government’s proposed changes to the Trust Special Administrator (TSA) process.
This clause is causing huge concern amongst the public as it would allow changes to be made to services without adequate local public engagement in the process. By allowing the TSA regime to spread to a wider area it means that any hospital, including stable and successful ones, could be caught up in changes to a financially failing trust.
Patients and NHS staff in our community are already concerned by difficulties at the various NHS Trusts that operate locally, such as the Great Western Hospitals NHS Trust, the East Wiltshire Health Care NHS Trust and the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and worry that we could potentially be among the first to be dealt with under the new process.

This could mean changes to services in ours and neighbouring hospitals being pushed through against the wishes of local people and commissioners.

With local people and our hospital in mind, I would like you to explain why your support for these proposed changes to the TSA regime.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Newman
Labour PPC for Chippenham
0754 0859 227