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CAMERON VISITS TRAFFORD GENERAL HOSPITAL FOR NHS SPEECH
Calling in support for Trafford General's defence, parliamentary candidate Mark Versallion invited David Cameron to visit the hospital and it served as the perfect venue for the Conservative leader's NHS speech.
To mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of the NHS, David Cameron visited Trafford General Hospital yesterday. The then Park Hospital in Davyhulme was the first to officially become part of the National Health Service in 1948.
Arriving
at Trafford General Hospital, David Cameron was met at the entrance of the
Seymour Unit by Interim Chief Executive Steve Spoerry and Chair of the Trust
Fay Selvan. After a meeting with the CEO and Chairman, Mr Cameron was given
a tour of the Seymour Unit and met with Matron Nora Webster and Dr Musgrave,
Trafford General’s Medical Director and other medical, nursing and support
staff as well as patients.
At the entrance to the ward Mr Cameron washed his hands and removed his jackets in line with Department of Health infection control guidance. After he met with other clinical staff he then departed for St Matthews Hall in Stretford to deliver his NHS Speech.
Stretford and Urmston Parliamentary Candidate Mark Versallion welcomed the visit also as an opportunity to highlight the plight of Trafford General being targeted by Government proposals to close the maternity and paediatric unit. Mr Versallion said "This was the hospital where, in July 1948, Nye Bevin launched the NHS and claimed Britain "now has the moral leadership of the world." Like many people, I am therefore worried, that the reality is slowly becoming one of an NHS with less services accessible to local people, and specifially, here in Trafford."
Mr Cameron detailed Conservative plans to tackle hospital infections such as MRSA by fining hospitals per individual case, rather than for missing infection targets. Speaking after the visit to Trafford General Hospital, David described the NHS as an "institution which binds our nation together", and confirmed his commitment to "its founding principle of equity."
He promised to provide it with more money and a constitution that enshrined its basic principles. And he said a Conservative Government would ensure the health system delivered "excellence as well as equity" by empowering patients - through the mechanism of choice - and re-empowering doctors - by giving them back their professional freedom.
He also said the Government's plans for a "vast, centralised, NHS database" were potentially dangerous - instead patients should own their records and they should be stored locally by his or her GP.