SOS For The NHS

1.01.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 28th Jun 2007

West Worcestershire's Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, Richard Burt has today launched his party's local 'SOS for the NHS' campaign to remind Prime Minister Brown that despite record spending NHS jobs and services are being lost, wards and hospitals closed and training and development programmes scrapped.

Mr Burt, who organised a Worcestershire NHS rally in Malvern earlier this year, said: "This year's overall NHS budget surplus of half a million was achieved by forcing NHS Trusts like Worcestershire PCT to make drastic cuts to jobs and services. 17,000 jobs have been lost in the past 12 months, according to the NHS Information Centre.

"We have not seen the last of the cuts as from 2008 the health service will stop getting the large annual rises in budgets that Trusts have become used to.

"Here in Worcestershire and across the country the Liberal Democrats will be campaigning on three issues:

• Stop the cuts - Holding up plans for a new community hospital in Malvern, staff made redundant and services slashed. It's no way to run the NHS and the cuts should be halted.

• Cut the waste - While services are being cut the Government is spending millions on computer systems that have yet to deliver and botched reforms which don't help patients.

• Give us back our NHS - Under Labour it is Government ministers that have ALL the say while local people have NO say. The Lib Dems want to see more control of the NHS in the hands of local people.

"Anyone can join our campaign and sign our petition by visiting www.nhssos.com."