Penrith and The Border has more community hospitals than any other constituency in Britain (Brampton, Alston, Penrith, and Wigton). They are, have always been, and will always be under threat. In 2005 one in four of all Cumbrians signed a petition to keep the hospitals open. They were saved and the Primary Care Trust and its successors have since committed to keeping them.
The reason community hospitals matter more so now than ever before, is because our needs in Cumbria are changing. In the next twenty years we will have twice the number of people over 85 in Cumbria. Those aged over 65 is set to rise to 35 per cent over the same period, and hospital admissions are likely to rise by 60 per cent because of increasing long years of chronic illness. This will be a financial disaster for the NHS, which could face an extra 20 million pounds of costs in Alzheimers treatment in Cumbria alone, each year.
Rory Stewart MP on Friday paid a visit to the Carlisle and Eden branch of Age UK’s new Hub service, following its official opening last month. There he met with local staff – including Hub Coordinator Hazel Laithwaite, and Alison Ambrose, CEO of Carlisle and Eden Ague UK – and volunteers, and chatted about the […]
Rory Stewart MP has visited Wigton Hospital, where he met with nursing staff, Eveline Dugdale of the League of Friends, and Cumbria Partnership staff to reassure of his support for the Hospital, part of his ongoing campaign to push back against the Success Regime’s consultation into the future of Cumbria’s Community Hospitals. The visit coincides […]
The campaign by Penrith and The Border MP Rory Stewart to halt the NHS Success Regime’s plans to reduce community hospital beds in his constituency continues, with Rory pressing the Programme Chair Sir Neil McKay on a number of fronts, and lobbying government Minister Ben Gummer for support. In an intervention this week, and following […]
Rory Stewart MP joined around 300 supporters of Appleby’s ‘Bring Edenside Home’ campaign on Saturday, as they marched through the town to raise the profile of their campaign and put pressure on Cumbria County Council to reopen the care home. Edenside was closed in December following the devastating floods, and residents were evacuated to the former Greengarth care home […]
Rory Stewart MP has pledged his support for residents of Edenside care home in Appleby, who were evacuated to the former Greengarth care home in Penrith, when Appleby was hit by the devastating Storm Desmond in December. Repair work to the care home has not yet started and there are fears in the community that […]
Rory Stewart MP has written to both Sir Neil McKay of the NHS Success Regime for Cumbria and to Department of Health Minister Ben Gummer, to request an urgent meeting to discuss his unequivocal backing of his constituency’s community hospitals. His involvement follows the release of documents relating to the Success Regime, and wording relating […]
Rory Stewart MP has joined the worldwide movement marking November as annual Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month (PCAM). It is a major awareness-raising tool about the disease, which is the fifth most common cause of all cancer deaths in the UK with only around 4% of people diagnosed surviving five years or more – a figure […]
Rory Stewart MP dropped in to Appleby’s Rampkin House last week for a photograph with residents and their defibrillator, to raise awareness of the importance of public defibrillators (AEDs) as part of the North West Ambulance Trust’s (NWAS) ‘Shoctober’ campaign. AEDs are small machines which can ‘shock’ a person’s heart into restarting and if this […]
Penrith and The Border MP, Rory Stewart, has welcomed progress in the campaign to compensate victims of the contaminated blood scandal of the 1970s and 1980s, following his question to the Prime Minister in March – after which the Prime Minister issued a full apology – and following the publication of a five-year independent inquiry […]
Following a visit to Kirkoswald GP surgery, Rory Stewart MP has written to NHS England to press that a bid to expand the practice is given the strongest possible consideration, to ensure the surrounding rural communities can continue to access quality healthcare, as close to home as possible. Rory received a tour of the small […]