David Cameron has launched a campaign to save 29 General Hospitals - including Hemel.

Conservative Leader David Cameron has today launched a campaign to save 29 general and district hospitals where A&E departments and maternity units are threatened with closure.

Speaking this morning on the BBC, David Cameron said:

“We believe that the district general hospital is an absolutely key part of the National Health Service.

“People have put money into the NHS - they've paid increased taxes.

"They want to see their district general hospital improved and people simply do not understand why maternity units and accident and emergency units are being shut down - when actually accident and emergency admissions are actually up and births are up."

Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, added:

“I very much welcome the campaign launched by David Cameron this morning. It is a real tragedy that ten years after Labour came to power, and after a massive increase of taxpayers’ money being spent on the NHS, we are still seeing devastating cuts in our health service.

“The Government consistently attempts to sidestep the blame for hospital closures by fingering mismanagement in ‘local’ NHS Trusts. What an absolute nonsense. It all stems from bias in the funding formula so that areas such as ours receive significantly less than the national average.

“A quick comparison shows that in the Health Secretary’s Hull constituency, for example, in the year 2007-08 the NHS will spend an average of £1,511 per head. In Dacorum that figure is £1,257 – a difference of over £250 per head.”

Mike continued:

“We are very close to losing our General Hospital in Hemel and it would appear that there is nothing that the residents of Hemel Hempstead can do about it other than lie down in front of the bulldozers when they come. So I am delighted that David Cameron has recognised the importance to local people of our General Hospitals and has launched this campaign.”