MP's Put Politics Aside To Save Hospital

11 January 2013, 14:22 | Updated: 11 January 2013, 15:14

Three Northamptonshire MP's are putting their political differences aside to try and save hospital services under threat in Kettering.

Peter Bone, Andy Sawford and Phillip Hollobone are all worried services such as A+E and Maternity could soon go from Kettering General Hospital under a new NHS Programme

The Healthy Together program looks at the services available at five local hospitals: Bedford, Kettering, Northampton, Milton Keynes and Luton & Dunstable.

Phillip Hollobone says Kettering General Hospital is being put under pressure to have some of their services moved to other places.

All three MP's agree that this could have devastating affects on an area where the population is rapidly growing.

Conservative MP Peter Bone says this is the first time he has ever worked with other MP's on a local issue partially an MP from another political party (Andy Sawford is a Corby's new Labour MP).

But he says they all feel very strongly about keeping hospital services so working together seemed like the right thing to do.

Phillip Hollobone says some of these feeling are made stronger by their personal links to Kettering General:

"We are all local residents, we've all been treated at this hospital, we've had our children born here we've had relatives die here, we've had bits of our bodies mended here, its our local hospital"

Doctor involved with the NHS Healthier Together Program says no decisions have yet been made on changes to the services provided by the five hospitals.

Dr Raffaella Poggi, NHS Nene Clinical Commissioning Group’s Locality Chair for Kettering said:

“We are looking for the best solution for our local population, both in terms of quality of services for patients and in terms of ensuring we have a vibrant hospital which remains a central part of the local community attracting high calibre clinicians and staff.”

Dr Pete Wilczynski, Chair designate of NHS Corby Clinical Commissioning Group, said:

“We estimate that at least eight out of ten local people will continue to get the care and treatment they need through their local hospital – or even closer to home as more routine procedures are provided through community facilities.  However there is clear clinical evidence that for more complex treatment, patients could get better outcomes if we concentrated our resources in multi-disciplinary, specialist teams on fewer hospital sites.”