HEART UNIT AT WESTMORLAND GENERAL HOSPITAL

Motion Text

That this House believes that patient safety in the South Lakes has been compromised by the removal of acute medical services from Westmorland General Hospital in August 2008; is deeply concerned that the journeys to hospital of seriously ill people are now often above an hour which puts those patients at risk; stands alongside the excellent ambulance staff whose work is made so much more difficult by the fact that they now have to spend longer on each patient to get them to hospital when they would otherwise have been ready to respond to the next emergency call; notes that the technology and practices at the excellent heart unit at Lancaster Royal Infirmary are no better than Westmorland General Hospital was able to provide up until August 2008; and calls for the reinstatement of a coronary care unit at the Westmorland General Hospital.