Harry Cohen
SAVE OUR SERVICES CAMPAIGN
Your response to my ‘Save Our Services’ campaign, launched in this column, has been huge and I must thank you all for your views and comments – only one piece of correspondence has been critical of my stance opposing some of the hospital proposals.
Whilst pursuing this matter another interesting question has been posed to me by a number of you – namely how your money is spent by public bodies such as the hospital trust. Sometimes public bodies have commitments which they don’t always explain very well and sometimes there are good reasons for spending which they haven’t always made clear. However, the other day I came across an example that I can’t explain.
Why is our hospital spending money on public relations? It’s not as if it needs to attract custom. People are either ill or they’re not and no one chooses to go into hospital. It’s not that it is in competition with anyone else. We have only got one hospital in the town and, apart from those needing highly specialised care, most people want to be treated near home. So I was astonished when I found out that, this year, the North Cheshire Hospitals Trust plans to spend £29,100 on public relations. That’s nearly £5,000 more than last year.
Why? Surely senior executives should be perfectly capable of handling press enquiries or issuing a statement on any issue of concern. Why do they need to employ a public relations firm? Surely hospitals should be spending money on sick people rather than on ‘spinning’ stories to the media.
Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that the trust want to present bad news to people in Warrington in the best way they can. I believe that their revised document on the future of services in North Cheshire reads like a public relations exercise and that their plans to place several new specialist units in Halton rather than Warrington remains unchanged. If that is so, and there are no changes giving Warrington a better deal, I can assure them that the public relations money has, in this case, been spent in vain and that the ‘Save Our Services’ campaign will intensify with your overwhelming support as indicated by your letters, e-mails and telephone calls.
You can continue to let me know your views on this or any other issue by writing to me at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, WA2 7JQ; faxing me on 01925 232 239; telephoning 01925 232 480; or e-mailing me at jonesh@parliament.uk
