Conservatives will maintain Children’s Services at Fairfield

My colleague Michelle Wiseman the Conservatives Candidate in Bury South and I met with Andrew Lansley this morning the Shadow Secretary of State for Health. Andrew has visited Bury on several occasions and has spent many hours studying the on going fiasco surrounding the Children’s Services and Maternity Department at Fairfield. As things stand Labour decided that following a reconfiguration they were going to shut down the Children’s Department at Fairfield including the Maternity Department and the Special Care Baby Unit. The reconfiguration included a huge and very costly public consultation exercise. The public made their views very, very clear. The public were ignored. After an independent review of the initial closure decision the whole matter went to Labour’s Secretary of State of Health who decided that Fairfield’s Maternity Department would close.

Andrew Lansley has reviewed the latest figures for the number of births across Greater Manchester and today said “If I am Secretary of State for Health after the election Maternity and Children’s Services will be maintained at Fairfield and I will ensure this happens. In the long term there will be no change to this without the consent of G.P.’s in and around Bury who will in our reforms be responsible for commissioning local services”.

The choice for voters in Bury North is clear: Vote Labour and these services will be axed from Fairfield. Vote Conservative and if there is a Conservative Government the Maternity Department will be kept open.

After discussing Fairfield we went on to visit the Blackford House Medical Centre which serves both Bury North and Bury South residents.

This afternoon I visited the residents at Hewlett Court and answered questions on a wide range of issues.

This evening I took part in another debate with the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates, this time it was organised by some of Bury’s Churches. Again the questions were wide ranging from the economy to M.P.’s expenses.