news story

15th May 2006

MP and Council Group Back Cancer Unit Campaign

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Northavon MP Steve Webb and the South Glos. Liberal Democrat group have joined forces with local campaigners in support of demands to save the Macmillan Palliative Care Unit at Frenchay Hospital.

The Lib Dem MP, whose constituency includes Frenchay Hospital, has spoken to Kingswood resident Martin Stevens about his petition campaign in support of the unit and has personally pledged his support. In addition to the paper-based petition campaign, MP Steve Webb has launched on his website an opportunity for local residents to sign the petition online.

The MP hopes to collect hundreds more names for the campaign through this route. Residents wanting to support the Palliative Care Unit at Frenchay can simply visit the MP's website and register their support online. The aim is to collect as many signatures as possible as soon as possible, both online and on the paper-based petition, so that they can be presented to North Bristol NHS Trust before any final decision is taken about the unit's future.

The Unit was only opened about 5 years ago by a Government minister, with the money for being charitably raised by local people. ,The Unit contains 8 palliative care beds forming the Macmillan Unit, and the building also houses a pain clinic. The Trust say that it will stay on the Frenchay site for now, but there is a "review", and they will not give any long-term guarantees.

Steve Webb said:

"The care provided by the Macmillan Unit at Frenchay is enormously valuable and must not be cut back. Both patients and staff deserve better than the uncertainty that is currently hanging over them. The management of North Bristol Trust must put an end to that uncertainty and provide better guarantees about the future of the Unit than they have so far done. Local people joined forces to raise the money for the Unit and to pay for nursing staff in the early years. It would be an outrage if the Unit were to be closed".

The campaign has been boosted by the support of the Lib Dem group on South Gloucestershire Council. Council leader Ruth Davis said:

"The people of South Gloucestershire attach huge importance to the care provided by the Macmillan Unit. We have already been treated badly by the decision to downgrade Frenchay to a mere community hospital. It would be totally unacceptable if we were also to lose the Macmillan Unit. It is time the NHS started listening to what local people want".
 

Click here to read news coverage of Martin Stevens' campaign

Click here to read details of the massive response to my petition