Quentin Davies MP has teamed up with former Miss Great Britain, Preeti Desai, and pledged his support for Carers Week 2007* (11-17th June). Quentin Davies MP and Preeti are drawing attention to the UK’s six million carers – people who look after a loved one who is either ill, frail or disabled – to help them gain the recognition and support they desperately need.

‘My Life as a Carer’ is the theme for Carers Week, and a survey of 3,500 carers has revealed the immense impact caring can have on every aspect of their life including, health, finances, career and relationships.

Two out of every three carers (66%) admitted that their personal relationships had suffered as a direct result of caring, with 60% revealing they have little quality time together with their partners. Two thirds (67%) admitted to being financially worse off, with a quarter (28%) unable to support their family properly. An alarming three-quarters of carers had not had a break from their caring role in the past 12 months.

Quentin Davies MP issued the following statement:

“The proposals made today by United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust , if implemented, will prejudice entirely the result of the current enquiry into the future of Grantham Hospital, which was said to be a fair and objective process.

By pulling emergency surgery out of the hospital, the Accident & Emergency department will be seriously, perhaps fatally, undermined and I am sure that the Trust knows that perfectly well. The Trust is justifying its decision on the basis of an opinion voiced by a surgeon who is retiring in March and who up to now has been operating without protest and apparently happily under the existing arrangements.

29 November 2006

The battle for Grantham Hospital continues. I have two important meetings, with the Primary Care Trust and the Hospitals Trust, next week. I doubt, however, I will have news – positive or negative – to report before Christmas.

But over the past months a growing conviction has emerged in my own mind. It is that the way decisions are taken in the N.H.S. is quite inconsistent with our self-image as a modern, open, participatory democracy.

We have created a bureaucratic monster, theoretically at least, responsible to a minister – the Secretary of State – who is theoretically responsible to Parliament. In practice, the monster has acquired an inscrutable and uncontrollable momentum of its own.

27 June 2006

“This is a terrible day for Grantham – certainly one of the blackest in its history – the day the death sentence was pronounced on Grantham as a General District Hospital.

It is impossible to exaggerate the seriousness of the situation we now face. Not only has our Health Trust proposed to remove all surgery (other than orthopaedics) from Grantham but they want to close our consultant–led Accident and Emergency Department. That means, without any doubt, that some people in the future will die who in present circumstances would not. A minor injuries unit run by nurses, with a G.P. standing by, does not even begin to replace an A. and E. Department capable of dealing with life-threatening emergencies. It is hard to think of a more devastating or callous betrayal.

It is excellent news that the Volunteer Bureau and Churches Together are organising a petition on Grantham Hospital. I shall look forward to presenting it formally in Parliament.

This is the moment of truth for Grantham Hospital. It has never faced so serious a threat to its existence in all its history.

Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust are considering the closure of our Accident and Emergency unit and of our critical care ward. In my several meetings with the Trust since they first conceived these plans as a result of new financial instructions sent to them after the General Election, I have made it clear that either decision would be an unpardonable and irrevocable betrayal of the people of Grantham. It would also inevitably entail the avoidable loss of lives.

11 September 2005

Stamford Mercury

There can be no better proof of the commitment of the people of Stamford to their hospital and of their determination to save it than the fact that several thousand people turned out on Saturday morning in the worst rain storm we’ve had for months. It was a magnificent and moving demonstration.

The Hospital Trust have given me new assurances that they have no plans to make further cuts. I have told them that we shall all be very cautious and sceptical for a long time, given their breach last month of identical undertakings made just before the election.

15 June 2005

Grantham Hospital

Quentin Davies MP today issued the following statement:

“I am deeply concerned by the announcement made this week by Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and by the PCT.

In a number of respects I think they are moving in quite the wrong direction.

Firstly the way to reduce unit costs at Grantham Hospital - and in the NHS generally – is firstly to reduce bureaucratic overheads and non-medical staff, and second to increase the number of patients and the services provided, so that the inevitable fixed costs of the hospital are spread over the maximum number of procedures and patients.

17 June 2005

Grantham Journal article

Two weeks ago I saw Jenny Green, Chairman of Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, which runs Grantham Hospital (and also the hospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Louth).

Our conversation was confidential and must remain so. But it was clear that, with the General Election out of the way, bad news was coming. I made it clear that I would never acquiesce in or be a party to any reduction in Grantham Hospital’s fundamental services or its credibility as a general hospital.

This week’s press release from Lincolnshire NHS was the worst sort of disingenuous PR double-speak - otherwise known as “spin”. If the Hospital Trust and the P.C.T. need to reduce bureaucratic overhead and non-medical costs – as they certainly do – they might start by firing the person who wrote it.

13 May 2005

Rutland & Stamford Mercury Article

It is certainly a great privilege to be re-elected to Parliament – perhaps an even greater privilege than to be elected the first time. Apart from an immediate celebration with family, friends and supporters and writing a lot of thank you letters to campaigners, what do I now do about it?

The first thing is clearly to try to live up to my promises and not to let anyone think that I have taken their continued confidence for granted. We are not in government, so the question of making sure that my party fulfils its own manifesto commitments does not arise. The years ahead must be spent at Westminster trying to keep the Government up to the mark, and helping to prepare the Conservative Party to become a credible party of government again at the next election. Neither task is likely to be an easy one.