Louth & District Labour Party plans '˜day of action' over NHS proposals

The Louth and District Labour Party will be holding a day of action next Saturday (January 21), campaigning against the current state of the NHS locally and nationally.
Louth County HospitalLouth County Hospital
Louth County Hospital

Campaigners will meet outside Louth County Hospital at 10am, before moving into the town centre to continue the campaign and hand out leaflets.

A local Labour Party spokesman told the Leader: “The NHS in Lincolnshire is looking at making further cuts to address a deficit of over £200 million as part of its Sustainability and Transformation Plan.

“The future of Louth hospital is uncertain, even though the town itself is growing and need for health services will only increase.

“The plan proposes moving ‘community facilities at Louth and Skegness’ to a single site, without explaining which services this refers to.

“In this rural area we must have health services people can reach quickly, whilst along the coastal strip the opportunity to solve deprivation issues around health is missed yet again.”

New research from the Labour Party Health Team claims that the number of people on the waiting list in England is around 3.9 million, and the number of people left ‘stranded’ on trolleys waiting for beds to become available in overcrowded hospital wards has risen by more than 600 per cent since October 2010.

Sarah Dodds, Labour County Councillor for Louth North, said: “There is no doubt that this is a crisis created by cuts and persistent underfunding of the NHS by the Tories.

“Shamefully, the Government failed to give the NHS and social care a single penny of extra investment in the Autumn Statement.

“The Tories are letting our NHS and patients down. They should invest properly in our NHS.

“That is why the Labour Party is calling on the Government to take immediate action to protect our NHS.”