Health

Local services

In a large and sparsely populated county like Lincolnshire, it is vitally important that we retain high quality local hospitals offering as wide a range of services as possible. Local Conservatives are on the alert for any threat to the future of Stamford and Grantham Hospitals. We will fight to ensure that local people get the good local health services they deserve.

Stamford and Bourne

Local Conservatives welcome the investment in better diagnostic services and a new gynaecology service at Stamford Hospital. But we are deeply concerned by the 2008 assessment of the quality of services provided by the Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals Trust as ‘weak.' The Trust assures us that orthopaedic waiting times have improved and that it will achieve a much better rating next year. We will hold the management of the trust to their promise.

Grantham

Local Conservatives welcome the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust's investment in a new CT scanner and the refitting of the endoscopy department at Grantham Hospital. We are determined make sure that this vital local hospital maintains its

  • midwife-managed maternity service
  • wide range of surgery capabilities
  • accident and emergency service

It is good news that United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust has been able to report a 30% cut in the number of Clostridium Difficile and MRSA infections. However, it is very worrying that the Care Quality Commission recently named ULHT as one of only 8 hospital trusts where progress in tackling problems with infection control was ‘slow'. Local Conservatives are pressing the management of ULHT to get a grips with infection control and ensure that next year CQC gives the trust a clean bill of health.

ULHT's management has decided to apply for status as a Foundation Trust. Unison is claiming that this will jeopardise the future of Grantham Hospital. We reject their scare-mongering and are inclined to support the Trust's bid for Foundation Trust status and the greater financial freedoms that this will bring. However, the Trust's leadership need to be aware that this support is not a blank cheque. They must deliver proper standards of infection control if they are deserve the greater freedoms enjoyed by a Foundation Trust.


Nick Boles

07 JAN 2010

Let the voters have their say

While most people in the country have been worrying about how to get to work through the snow and ice and who's going to look after their children while their school is closed, everyone in Westminster has spent the last two days talking about the latest Labour plot to get rid of Gordon Brown.  I don't know about you but I am heartily sick of these stories.  Gordon Brown has been Prime Minister for the last two years.  The British people had no say in his election to that office.   At the very least, they deserve an opportunity to pass their own verdict on his tenure of it.  And a general election is the way to let them do it.

05 JAN 2010

My NHS, your NHS, our NHS

David Cameron has kicked off the Conservatives' campaign for change with a billboard promising cuts in the budget deficit and not the NHS.  Our opponents doubt the depth and sincerity of the Conservatives' commitment to the NHS.  But I hope that no-one will doubt David Cameron's - or mine.  David has talked of the huge debt he and his family owe the NHS for the way doctors and nurses looked after Ivan and helped make his short life a more bearable one.  What some of you may not know is that I have my own personal reason to thank the NHS.  In the spring of 2007, before I moved to Lincolnshire, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease,  a cancer of the lymph system.  Although I had private health insurance at the time, I relied on the NHS for every aspect of my treatment.  And the care I received throughout several months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy was superb.  Can the NHS be reformed and improved?  Of course it can.  But can I countenance a Britain without it?  Over my dead body.